In the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot nearly four months ago, major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter banned then-President Donald Trump indefinitely for allegedly inciting unrest among his supporters.
Trump has found a way to bypass the effort to censor him from the online world, however, by way of a new platform where he can communicate with friends and foes alike, Fox News reported.
Hosting site for Trump’s statements
That new platform built solely to host the former president is called “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” and is attached to his “donaldjtrump.com” website.
It will serve as a singular point where Trump can post his messages, statements, and videos that for the past several months have been issued as releases through his Save America PAC and distributed via email to reporters and supporters, sometimes making those releases difficult to find for those not on the mailing list.
Now, a visit to Trump’s Desk reveals all of his released statements laid out in a social media-like timeline and features options for each post to be “liked” or shared to Facebook and Twitter.
The top post on the timeline at the time of the launch was a video that featured various media voices discussing Trump being banned from most social media while declaring in text: “In a time of silence and lies, a beacon of freedom arises,” and continues, “a place to speak freely and safely, straight from the desk of Donald J. Trump.”
A disappointment to some
Fox News noted that, while Trump Desk allows the former president to post messages and videos and for people to like and share them, as well as allow people to submit their information to receive an alert whenever there is a new post, it does not currently allow for any sort of further engagement or replies.
Instead, as one unnamed source familiar with the site described, it provides for “one-way communication” to facilitate “Trump to communicate with his followers.” In other words, this is not exactly a new social media platform that some hoped Trump would launch to rival the other platforms that sought to silence him.
“President Trump’s website is a great resource to find his latest statements and highlights from his first term in office, but this is not a new social media platform,” Trump senior advisor Jason Miller told Fox. “We’ll have additional information coming on that front in the very near future.”
Facebook upholds suspension
Meanwhile, the launch of Trump Desk came one day before Facebook’s supposedly independent oversight board was to consider an appeal to reinstate the former president’s accounts that was suspended “indefinitely” in January.
According to the Associated Press, the board decided to uphold the suspension for now but seemed to chastise Facebook for making the ban “indefinite” and gave the platform six months to determine on its own whether to reinstate the account or make the ban permanent.
It will be interesting to see what Facebook ultimately decides to do, both in terms of Trump’s suspended accounts as well as with regard to his new Desk, and whether it and other platforms like Twitter will allow his messages to be shared or continue to seek to silence him by censoring those who share his postings.
The post Trump launches new platform to communicate with supporters first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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