I Went on the “Trump” Social Media Site, Gettr

The new “Freedom of Speech” Social Media Platform is a Delightful Disaster

After the failure of Trump’s blog, the far-right has now released what it hopes to be a bastion of free speech on the internet.

I absolutely love the idea of a right-wing social media site that embraces “no moderation! Freedom of speech!” because over and over, they prove why websites need moderation. First was Parler, whose #hashtags were constantly abused to the point that they were useless, and I think Gab is still around somewhere, but honestly, I haven’t checked in a minute. Their CEO sends some weird, rambling emails that usually invoke God, and I lost interest pretty fast.

Tech allows for great inventions, but people also continuously forget why we did things a certain way to begin with. Uber seemed great until we realized oh right, insurance and standards and living wages for drivers were important, and that’s why there were rules.

Moderation is important, which is why there are rules.

I downloaded Gettr, the pro-Trump app funded by a fugitive Chinese billionaire, and found:

• Hentai and gay porn. Super unsurprising, and basically what I was expecting. The unmoderated internet turns into a bunch of dicks doing stuff. Real dicks, cartoon dicks, just, dicks!
• Complaints about the porn and asking if this was a porn site.
• Incessant thanking of Trump in all caps.
• Users questioning why Trump was blocked (a troll account, I’m guessing? But…wouldn’t that mean…THIS APP IS MODERATED TOO?!)
• Asking about searching features, like how to block or follow.
• Questions about which account was Trump’s. How would they know who was verified? (Oh, so, asking for a feature found on a moderated site, to verify someone’s authenticity. Got it.)
• “FOLLOW ME IF YOU’RE A REAL AMERICAN”
• اللغة العربية (Arabic)

These screenshots crack. Me. Up. Here’s just a taste, so you can save your phone’s memory:

What, is this not the Christian content you were looking for? What’s wrong with this? Also, if you go on the app yourself, you’ll see that this…is…definitely some of the tamer content.

Also, really hope that person finds the follow button. Always a great sign when a user can’t perform a basic task. Much design. Much good.

(Some of you may wonder why I edit out the usernames — as someone who used to work for social media sites, I am still kind of a stickler for privacy, even if I don’t agree with users or find their actions deplorable.)

This app is a delightful romp into the depths of the pure reptile brain that just wants to scream whatever comes to mind. The hashtags are unusable.

It reminds me a lot of Parler, and probably has a lot of the same issues.

I hope this was worth investing in!

So far, the format is very “Twitter”-like. There is one pinned post on what could be called a “Discover” page, and nothing more. The replies to this post are a barrage of confusion, porn, and support questions. Some people implore others to follow them if they’re a “real” patriot. One account demanded people take an oath to America before following him.

Cool story, bro.

There’s also a lot of Arabic and a lot of demand to support the Arabic characters, which I’m guessing it was not launched to do. The amount of Arabic surprised me. I don’t remember seeing a lot of this on Parler. Naturally, some people are screaming for Gettr to remove content that is not in English.

What about free speech?

I did not create an account, which is probably for the best, considering it appears a lot of users are having trouble receiving verification emails from Gettr if they have Yahoo and Gmail accounts. There is also speculation that soon, the app will be removed from the app and Google Play stores.

Ah, yes, in order to exist on the internet, other people and entities have to support your existing on the internet. It is the fatal flaw of this plan. If you want fewer bots to reduce the amount of porn, you need email verification. If you have email verification, you need to rely on those emails being received.

So far, I have not seen anything violent or organized. I haven’t really seen anyone with more than a handful of followers. Even the snarky memes about Biden’s wife changing his diaper seem to be met with a bunch of “meh.”

I mean, if there are no liberals to “own”, is your social media site even doing anything? If you post an offensive political meme only for the post above and below yours to be shocking Hentai porn, then is anyone even paying attention to you? If everyone is posting “HOW DO I USE THIS APP” then spamming the hashtags with Arabic characters, does anyone care about your sexist cartoon?

Or is this just a scream at no one in particular, about nothing in particular—an incoherent shout from people who aren’t sure what they’re really standing for anymore?