Former President Donald Trump’s team quietly launched a new social media platform on Thursday, billing it as an alternative to Big Tech sites. But the debut immediately ran into confusion about whether it was the former president’s long-promised bid to offer his legions of followers their own social media haven or merely the next attempt to build a MAGA-alternative to the main platforms.
The site, called GETTR, advertised its mission statement as “fighting cancel culture, promoting common sense, defending free speech, challenging social media monopolies, and creating a true marketplace of ideas.” The app is currently in beta form and will be officially launched on July 4 at 10a.m.
Trump’s former spokesman, Jason Miller, is leading the platform, he confirmed via text. Former Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh is involved as a consultant on the app. Trump’s involvement with the project is unclear as is whether or not he will set up an account on GETTR and use it.
“The former president is going to make his own decision, it’s certainly there and ready for him should he make the decision we would welcome that. There is an account reserved for him and waiting for him but that’s a decision for him to make,” said a person involved with the app.
The former president has been looking for alternative ways to engage with his base online after having been booted off Twitter and suspended from Facebook. And his prior effort to engage online through the launch of a professional blog ended quickly amid widespread ridicule and poor readership.
This new venture may also raise questions about privacy, including whether it harvests information about its users’ Twitter followers. GETTR is one of the highest-profile projects in a larger ecosystem of pro-MAGA tech and social media platforms that have blossomed on the right, largely fueled by a sense that Big Tech is attempting to silence conservative and pro-Trump ideology from being disseminated online.
In recent months, it was widely reported that the Trump team was searching for a platform on which to re-establish his online presence, either by buying a company outright and rebranding it as his exclusive platform, or becoming a featured draw.
The GETTR app first went live on the Google and Apple app stores in mid-June and was most recently updated Wednesday. It’s been downloaded more than one thousand times on each. A description for GETTR on the app stores calls it a “non-bias social network for people all over the world.” The app is rated “M” for mature, meaning it is recommended for users 17 and older.
The name GETTR was inspired by the words “Getting Together.” Posts will be 777 characters long, the app will host videos up to three minutes in length, and will also be capable of hosting livestreams, the person working on the app said. Headquarters for the app are located in New York.
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