Parker Davis

It appears the so-called safe space for conservstives, specifically Trump conservatives, Gettr, is having a hard time managing its content creators.  From the beginning, it was promised that Donald Trump would build a social media answer to all the baddies, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube.  That became a blog site that Trump sometimes posts stuff on.  Later, we heard about Gettr.  Initially, it was thought to literally be a Trump-led project, but, in fact, it had no real affiliation with Trump at all, it was just a social media platform that marketed itself as a free speech social media platform specifically friendly to Trump supporters, especiallly those that had recently been axed from one of the baddies, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

The recent Gabs by Roger Stone, another free-speech-promising platform, this one billed as an alternative to Twitter, suggest that the site is using its power as a gatekeeper not unsimilarly to how the baddies  use their position of power advantage as gatekeepers of little accountability to the ones they serve.

Roger Stone is complaining about the free speech platform, Gettr, silencing him, censoring him, because, he alleges, he said something bad about the Gettr founder, Jason Miller, as well as Steve Bannon.  Given what Trump has said about Bannon in the past (he essentially called him an amateur, he threw Bannon under the bus hard), one is doubtful that even Trump would have that much of a problem with anyone talking smack about Bannon.  This appears to be about protecting a certain faction’s particular useful narrative, and that faction might just be a Bannon faction.  Regardless of what Jason Miller represents, making factional gatekeeping decisions makes you one of the baddies, sir.

Of course, all of this suppses Stone is being totally truthful and transparent in what he relates as his version for why Gettr has censored him. The story itself though is telling in that one member of a larger faction, the Trump faction, seems willing to cast into doubt the legitimate credentials of Gettr as a bastion for conservative safe-spacism.  This would not be done lightly, even by Stone, so that leads me to believe there was some degree of real throttling of this man’s voice on Gettr because he broke a factional narrative, this one being, at the very leas,t the Jason Miller faction, which might just be Jason Miller alone, given factional power, so to speak, by share weight of his controlling of the filter on the Gettr platform.

Gettr, to me, is yet another example of a good idea for a group of people, say, a faction, to get behind, the idea of building a people-reaching free speech platform to counter the controlling social media platforms we now have, and a few people with deep pockets or relationships with networks of people with deep pockets, slap together some stuff to co-opt the idea and turn it into a quick money maker and/or prestige builder that ends up being an unprofessional cringe fest that implodes within a couple or so years (if not sooner) leaving everyone highly discouraged at ever trying the actually good idea ever again.

Let’s hope Gettr doesn’t discourage others for finding way to build such social media platforms, but don’t let’s make them just safe spaces for conservatives, make them actually as extremely free speech as human to human contact on a digital platform can be.

Trumpist Gettr Social Network Continues To Speed Run Content Moderation Learning Curve: Bans, Then Unbans, Roger Stone

From www.techdirt.com
2021-08-26 16:45:00

Excerpt:

 

Remember Gettr? That’s the Trumpist social network run by former Trump spokesperson (and vexatious lawsuit filer) Jason Miller that promised to be supportive of “free speech.” As we point out what happens with every new social network that jumps into the space with promises to “support free speech!” and “not censor!” before long they will begin to realize content moderation is required to keep your site running — and soon they discover that content moderation will involve difficult choices. And, sometimes, it involves making mistakes.

Of course, whenever Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or whoever else note that they made a “mistake” with a content moderation decision and reverse it, there are always some people who insist it couldn’t possibly be a mistake and must be [insert conspiratorial reason here]. So I find it hilarious that on Wednesday, Gettr got to experience all this as well. First, Trump buddy and admitted “dirty trickster” Roger Stone went on Gab — another such social network — to whine about how he was “censored” by Gettr, claiming it was because he had made what he believed were disparaging remarks about Miller (and Steve Bannon).

 

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