social media
That’s how widespread the right-wing clones of Twitter are
The Truth Social app, with which Donald Trump wanted to make himself independent of the “tyrants of big tech”, is a flop
© Chris Delmas / AFP
Twitter will have a new owner in Elon Musk, who claims to want to strengthen freedom of expression on the platform. It remains to be seen whether this means that users who have migrated to right-wing clones will return.
Donald Trump’s new social network was launched in February under the name Truth Social. The app has been downloaded 1.2 million times so far. After being banned from Twitter and Facebook, the former US President is trying to create a new channel for his public relations. The app apparently stays pretty close to the original. With Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, some Republicans who had turned their backs on the network are returning to the trusted platform. There is also speculation about Trump’s return, but he announced that he wanted to remain loyal to Truth Social.
The political right in the USA has a real obsession with the Californian short message service Twitter. Two Twitter clones already exist. Parler has been online since 2018 and claims to have over 16 million registered users. The service made headlines in 2020 when Amazon, Google and Apple pulled the plug on the app and website.
Gettr is significantly younger. Since the service went online in July 2021, over four million people have created an account there – according to the company, the microblogging site with unmistakable Twitter references is the fastest growing network in the history of social media. Whether that is true remains to be seen. In any case, the fact is that none of the right-wing Twitter clones are currently even close to their role model.