Deprived of social media, how is Donald Trump going to be able to address his supporters?
The outgoing US president, who has become "persona non grata" on most of the major social networks, mentioned the possibility on Friday evening of creating his own platform. Unless he invests in the ultra-conservative Gab and Parler networks which are enjoying increasing success.
Twitter, Instagram, Twitch ... Since Thursday, the accounts of outgoing US President Donald Trump have been suspended on numerous social networks, after some of his supporters suddenly burst on Wednesday, January 6, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Twitter said it was taking this unprecedented step in the face of "the risk of new incentives to
The usually rather permissive discussion platform Reddit also shut down a popular fan forum for the head of state on Friday for violating its hate speech policies.
Find a sounding board
Those close to Donald Trump have reacted strongly to these decisions but for communicating with the general public, the alternatives remain limited for the moment.
"Freedom of expression is dying and is controlled by all-powerful leftists," lamented the eldest son of White House tenant Donald Trump Jr.
"Who will be the next to be silenced?" Asked the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
“Why should a handful of Silicon Valley billionaires have a monopoly on political speech? ", Took offense the influential Republican senator from Texas Ted Cruz.
Ironically, all of these messages were posted on Twitter, the social network that for years was Donald Trump's preferred medium.
What then can be the new sounding board for Donald Trump and his supporters? His son Donald Trump Jr, fearing to be also off Twitter, has already offered to his subscribers to leave their email on his site to receive news. Not really the most responsive medium.
In a quickly deleted tweet, Donald Trump spoke on Friday evening of the idea of creating his "own platform in the near future" without giving more details.
Gab and Parler, two conservative networks
Conservative platforms prized by Trump's staunchest supporters like Parler and Gab are attracting growing audiences.
Faced with the "record attendance" Friday night and Saturday, Gab even had to add servers, explained its creator Andrew Torba. “12 million visits in the last 12 hours. Growth is exploding, "said the boss of this social network on Saturday morning.
Launched in 2016, Gab presents itself as a platform that promotes "freedom of expression" and "individual freedoms", but is best known to its far-right and even neo-Nazi users. It was on Gab that the perpetrator of a shooting that killed 11 in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 posted numerous anti-Semitic messages before the attack.
Several companies have already banned Gab from using their services, including PayPal, Visa, and Google and Apple's app download platforms.
Speaking from his side is no longer like when it started, in 2018, the preserve of extremist fringes. It now welcomes more traditional conservative voices like the star presenter of Fox Nex and close to Donald Trump, Sean Hannity, or the Republican governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem.
Also a member of Parler, influential political commentator Mark Levin announced Friday evening that he had "suspended" his Twitter account "in protest against fascism" from the social network, and asked all of his followers to join him on the conservative platform.
Mark Levin also mentioned his account on Rumble, a site that offers like YouTube to broadcast videos but promises its users that they will "never be censored for political or scientific content".
Soon to be withdrawn from major platforms?
All these alternative platforms, however, remain marked on the right, and even on the extreme right. It is not certain that they will attract an audience as large as the 88 million followers of Donald Trump's late Twitter account.
They could also face the decision of companies to facilitate their distribution, such as Google which announced Friday that it had withdrawn Parler from its application download platform.
