It seems Donald Trump is taking a page out of The Art of War. The venerable Master counsels:” “If we go forth and the enemy can also advance, it is termed ‘accessible’. In an accessible configuration, first occupy the heights and yang (side), and improve the routes for transportation of provisions. Then when we engage in battle, it will be advantageous”.” (LINK in here to Sun Tzu video).
Sun Tzu’s reference to the ‘heights and the yang’ in business refers to the key terrain. Those attributes/ factors that organizations absolutely must have in order to be successful in the industry or business sector they have chosen.
In the instant case it is imperative that presidential candidates have unimpeded access to the electorate so the voters can fully assess what political direction the candidate will take-( in this case United States). It seems to me without the Trump’s Twitter account there would have been little opportunity to communicate his platform to the electorate.
Trump was one of the first politicians to recognize the power of social media in this new industrial age. He exploited Twitter and by doing so he was able to communicate his message directly tens of millions of this loyal followers. Thereby bypassing the traditional media mediums and in particular newspapers. Since his success there has been a wave of politicians opening up social media accounts and attempting to replicate his success.
Without free speech you cannot have a democracy.
The major social media companies advocate a strong left-wing political ideology and use their sites as weapons to promote their ideology at the expense of Trump and other right-wing advocates. A serious impediment particularly during a presidential election when Twitter / Facebook etc. Accounts are blocked and/or removed without recourse…
AS evidence of these entities transgressing civil liberties, freedom of speech and attempting to shape the elections we need look no further than the widely reported article: “Mark Zuckerberg spent $419M on non-profits ahead of 2020 election — and got out the Democratic vote. (Link) Mark Zuckerberg spent $419M on non-profits ahead of 2020 election — and got out the Dem vote (nypost.com). Zuckerberg targeted private take over of government election operations by funding like-minded left-wing non-profit organizations. With the result that in key swing states like Georgia (12,000 Votes) and Arizona (10,000 votes) (and 25 other seats) were large wins for Pres. Biden’s.
The New York Post article reports that the “2020 election wasn’t stolen, it was likely bought by one of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful men pouring his money through legal loopholes”.
Facebook in particular is a long history of transgressions to include a $1 billion fine leaved by the European Union for its cavalier treatment of their data.
Finally there appears to be some movement by the US Congress to a look closely at the litany of offenses to ascertain whether or not regulations and/or potentially breaking up Facebook into smaller units might be the appropriate solution.
Interestingly one might conclude that today’s announcement to change the name of Facebook to Meta— in essence to rebrand Facebook might be sufficient for individuals to overlook their behaviour. Am of the opinion it’s too little too late.
Certainly their business practices to include flying in the face of the Competition Act (by close down start-ups) are troubling. For example: “Parler, founded in 2018, bills itself as “unbiased social media” and a place where people can: “… speak freely and express yourself openly without fear of being ‘deplatformed’ for your views,”. It clear the fledging new site was right wing conservative driven. Within hours it was banned by Apple, Google and Amazon.
These sort of acts by Big Tech have motivated Trump to form along with a number of other likeminded folks their own social media company. A poll found that over 60% of Republicans will use the site. That is a large prat of the market share.
I’m confident it is just not the desire to get into the lucrative social media business but also in preparation for controlling the message to those who would listen during the elections of 2022 and 2024. As the Chinese say “interesting times”.
If interested here is more detail on Trump’s social media platform.
What we know so far about Trump’s planned social media platform
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced plans to launch his own social networking platform called TRUTH Social, which is expected to begin its beta launch for “invited guests” next month.
Banished from major social media platforms, former President Donald Trump has announced plans to form a public company that will launch a long-anticipated social platform of his own, claiming to create a space to “stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech.”
The press release announcing the platform, TRUTH Social, has a familiar Trumpian confidence, but the sustainability and many details of the venture are unclear.
TRUTH Social is expected to have a beta launch in November with a wider rollout in 2022, according to the release. Interested users can sign up for the platform on truthsocial.com — but there have been questions raised about the initial security of the site.
The release lists Trump as the chairman of the Trump Media & Technology Group, which would be formed by joining with Digital World Acquisition Corp., pending regulatory and stockholder approval. DWAC is a special purpose acquisition company, which sells stock with the intention of buying private firms, and the release says the corporation will invest $293 million in the Trump project.
Stock prices for DWAC skyrocketed Thursday after the announcement, according to CNBC. The Miami-based company was founded in December 2020.
Trump was banned from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob as the companies cited a risk of further violence. Trump’s accounts were also flagged multiple times for spreading false information about voting fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
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Trump and others have claimed that the major tech platforms try to silence conservative voices — though some, notably the commentator Ben Shapiro, have found huge popularity because of their presence on social media.
In response to what he and allies viewed as Big Tech censorship, Trump first teased starting his own social media company back in March.
His former close adviser Jason Miller has since started his own social platform called GETTR. In a statement Wednesday night, Miller said, “Trump has always been a great deal-maker, but we just couldn’t come to terms on a deal.” Miller congratulated Trump on the launch of his company.
TRUTH Social claims it will be a place that “encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology.” And yet, its terms of service forbids users from using the platform to “disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the Site.”
As NPR’s Domenico Montanaro reported in March when Trump first floated the idea of launching such a platform, the whole project is a tough one in which to find success. First, competing with the massive influence and reach of existing platforms is a big challenge — one other conservative platforms haven’t managed to get much traction on, either. Also, Trump has in the past had many pie-in-the-sky ventures that haven’t worked out — and he’s facing his own brand problems in the wake of his presidency and the violence on Jan. 6, so the scope of who would participate in the platform would likely be limited.
Another outstanding question is what role the site might play if Trump decides to run for president again in 2024 and whether it would serve as a big enough megaphone when he no longer has the immediate influence he had on Twitter.
