“Also, get rid of Section 230 – Don’t let Big Tech steal our Country, and don’t let the Democrats steal the Presidential Election. Get tough!” he wrote in last week in office (while he was president). See link.
Trump’s message hasn’t changed. Big Tech are destroyers of free speech. Jack Dorsey (Twitter CEO) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO) were convenient targets of Republicans.
Trump has always had a problem with the truth. The Washington Post identified 30,000 lies in the four years while he was president. Since he lost the election, and was thrown off of Facebook and Twitter, he’s been looking for ways to keep his millions of followers with him. He can hop from state to state, delivering his message at rallies, with the expectation that at least Fox and OAN networks will cover them. But that is expensive, and tiring.
What suddenly changed was Donald Trump found a way back into the social media business – big time. He needs protection from lawsuits. So does Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey (Twitter). Nothing like a common business interest for opponents to crawl into the same bed.
Legal immunity for content posted on social media platforms is provided under Section 230 (see links below). As president, Trump could threaten Twitter and Facebook, that he would strip these websites of the immunity from lawsuits based on content that others had posted. Now, Trump absolutely needs Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This was passed in 1996, by the Clinton administration when social media was really in its infancy and initially thought to be a blow against free speech.
To go big into social media, you need this legal protection. Donald Trump’s TRUTH Social website is going to spread malicious misinformation 24/7. And definitely the Trump organization could get sued for defamation and libel. But this stuff will be posted by others, so his organization will have Section 230 immunity. They will censor content which doesn’t fit the gospel according to Trump. It’s their platform, and they can chose the people allowed to post commentary.
Trump also will pay big bucks for big tech to deliver his message. Yes, to Google and Facebook, to selectively find likely followers. It’s targeted marketing and everyone does it. And his message will continue to be anti-government (as long as Biden is in charge), anti-big tech and anti-Section 230 immunity.
And lastly the cash vehicle, DWAC, a stock symbol for Digital World Acquisition Corporation, which last week was a sleepy $10/share stock to $175/shr then dropped to $94/shr, all in 3 days. A stock that’s up 900% is known as a 9-bagger. Yes, other stocks have increased 9 fold, but in the course of 3 days, that’s crazy.
The creed of investors, is to focus on the opportunity to make money, and as long as the company is likely to grow, nothing else really matters. Of course Trump’s site is appropriately named GARBAGE Social, The way to the capital markets used to be IPO’s or initial public offerings. But, Special Purpose Acquisition Corporations are now the super fast lane onto a public listing without any real income or governmental scrutiny. The new corporation is called Trump Media and Technology Group.
There is a large part of our population which have steadfastly clings to the latest conspiracy theories on the “radical left movement” in cahoots with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, which by the way, are no longer among us. There’s the big lie, that Trump actually won the election, and all the little lies, some really pretty crazy, i.e. “Ivanka Trump has done a fantastic job for women and also for jobs. Thirteen million additional jobs.” Sept 27, 2019. Somehow, the claim and reality have taken two divergent paths.
I don’t get my news from Facebook or Twitter. Donald Trump’s foray into social media on the new large scale, will give him his own platform for misinformation. While Mark Zuckerberg is trying to keep misleading information off his platform, this is exactly what Trump wants on his. Garbage propaganda is a pretty polite way of putting it. See links.
Stay tuned,
Dave
Links:
Some of these links from the news media may not be active in a few months.
Washington Post: Trump’s Lies While President. .
Scaramucci was Trump’s communication director for 11 days.
Some of these links from the news media may not be active in a few months.
Trump media SPAC stock doubles, bringing 2-day gains to 800% in retail-trading frenzy
Truth Social: Trump’s new social network will benefit from the very law he tried to destroy
news and views 