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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.

Take-Aways

  • Gettr is a social media platform designed to appeal to those irritated by Twitter’s misinformation policies.
  • Several platforms bill themselves as a “free-speech alternative,” all fighting for right-leaning social media supremacy.
  • So far, Gettr has had limited engagement, but future plans include financial services and possibly more participation from those who lean left.

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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