March 25, 2021
Some months back, the immediate past President of the United States, Donald Trump was one of the well-known faces on social media platforms. However, his false election claims and the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol resulted in his ban from most social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook. Following his ban, his influence was significantly curtailed to email statements and television interviews. In a podcast released on Monday, Donald Trump told Fox News contributor, Lisa Boothe of his intention to have, his social media platform. According to Trump, “I’m doing things having to do with putting our own platform out there that you’ll be hearing about soon,”
For Jennifer Grygiel, a professor at Syracuse University who studies social media and its influence, Trump is an attention seeker who has a problem because he is not on social media. She noted, “He does not really have a lot of people paying attention to him right now, and this [teasing of a new platform] is a great way to get attention.”
Looking at Trump’s decision to have his social media platform, there exist a lot of reasons to be skeptical about the sustainability and popularity of such intending platform. Some of these reasons include competing with big tech corporations and building a social media platform with mass appeal. Also, while Trump’s senior adviser boasted that the platform will be a game-changer, it however remains unclear how this would materialize.
For more information, read the Original Story from NPR.
