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Can Gettr Become the Online Gathering Place for Trump’s G.O.P.?
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Can Gettr Become the Online Gathering Place for Trump’s G.O.P.?

With Big Tech cracking down on COVID-19 and election misinformation, sites with more permissive posting rules are courting prominent figures on the right.

Clare Malone
The New Yorker, 2022
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In the early days of the internet, tech companies weren’t the arbiters of culture. “Just let people post what they want, we’re smart enough to sort through the information,” seemed to be the general consensus. It’s clear now, however, that what gets posted on social media has real-world consequences. As existing social media giants grapple with limiting misinformation, new social media platforms are grappling for their slice of the action, using the promise of “free speech” to attract new users. The New Yorker describes the bumpy rise of one such platform.

Summary

Gettr is a social media platform designed to appeal to those irritated by Twitter’s misinformation policies.

Twitter has banned several popular right-leaning American politicians, including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump, along with Dr. Robert Malone of anti-vax fame. Banned users characterize themselves as victims of digital censorship, but Twitter cites the posters’ proclivity for spreading misinformation and their disregard for the platform’s posting rules as the reason for the bans. Regardless of the reason for the bans, the landscape is wide open for a conservative-oriented social media site. Jason Miller, former senior communications adviser for Trump’s 2016 campaign, is happy to answer the call.

Miller launched Gettr, his answer to Twitter, on July 4, 2021, and though the initial launch was rocky (hackers gained access to the site on its first operational day) Gettr has managed to attract some prominent posters...

About the Author

Clare Malone covers politics, business media and journalism for The New Yorker. Previously, she worked as a senior political writer for FiveThirtyEight.

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