Donald Trump to launch social outlet company “Truth Social”

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Former President Donald Trump has announced that he will launch a new media enterprise, which will include a social media app named “Truth Social,” and a television network that will feature “non-woke” programming.

This comes after the former President was banned from other social media networks following the Capitol Hill riots of Jan. 6, 2021.

This should come as hardly no surprise, as there has been discussion of Trump launching his own media brand since he first ran for President.

Some people believed he would have been satisfied losing the 2016 election, as it was the perfect springboard to launch his new network. But alas, having lost the 2020 election, he can now focus on this new project. 

It is my opinion that Trump has correctly identified a problem with today’s social media, but it is not apparent to me that he has found the right solution. He may actually be making it worse. 

The issue with social media is that power is concentrated in very few hands. If politicians or other public figures are not allowed to use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, their ability to engage with supporters is greatly diminished.

As they are private companies, media outlets can ban users from their platforms for any reason they see fit, though they usually cite community guidelines when policing activity. Tasked with playing the role of policymaker and police, these companies, consciously or unconsciously, have become partisan. 

Legislation is not the answer. But the problem of social media outlets having unbridled control over so many aspects of politics and society, and many of the people who run those corporations being of the same political persuasion, is something worth addressing.

The proper answer to this monopolistic control would be to launch a media platform where freedom of thought can flourish. A place where bad ideas are allowed to live, precisely because they are wrong, is more productive than banning users. Public debate changes minds in a way stopping the conversation cannot. 

But Trump has not shown me in his time in the public eye that he is the man for the job. Of course, he is capable of launching a social media app, and it will undoubtedly attract many users that feel traditional social media outlets have used their tremendous power in a partisan fashion.

But Trump’s base will be the first users of “Truth Social,” and this may turn the new platform into a conservative echo-chamber rather than a bastion of liberalism. 

The solution would be a social media app whose founders believed more in their liberal values than their political convictions. This is, of course, a dying breed.

If you hold so much control, fighting the temptation to wield it in a way that conforms to your vision of a better society is difficult.

But liberal values dictate that we must encounter views that make us uncomfortable, and by having those conversations, we become more informed and educated. 
“Truth Social” will not be the answer to partisanship in social media.

It will fight fire with fire. But the experiment may pave the way for a new social media that addresses the problems inherent in the monopoly structure of today’s social media.

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