Trump launches his own platform against the media Taliban
The US Democrats are going to have to do a lot to prevent former President Donald Trump from returning to power. With the historic Republican Party surrendered to him, the former tenant of the White House is preparing to fight the battle of communication through his best weapon: social networks. Banned and excluded from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube following the assault on the Capitol by a partisan horde, which Trump himself had just spurred on, the fiery leader suddenly lost direct and instant communication with his 89 million followers on Twitter, 35 million on Facebook and the 24 million who followed him on Instagram. A powerful and effective tool that was barely defeated at the polls by the then candidate and now US President Joe Biden.
If after Trump's defeat in the elections, ratified by all the judicial bodies to which he appealed, we stated that the defeated president would pass but that Trumpism would survive, today, almost a year later, we can be sure that both his victory in the 2022 legislative elections and his return to the White House in 2024 are quite likely.
Trump has not stopped manoeuvring and acting since then, but now announces the launch of his own social network in November, which he calls Truth Social, in order to combat "the tyranny of the tech giants, who have used their unilateral power to silence America's dissenting voices". The former president continues: "We live in a world where the Taliban have a huge presence on Twitter while your favourite American president (sic) has been reduced to silence. It is completely unacceptable".
According to the statement explaining the details of the launch, Truth Social will be the cornerstone of the new communication group created by the former president himself, Trump Media & Technology (TMTG), which will also distribute videos on demand and "no woke" podcasts, a clear allusion to the politically correct trend that, from California, has spread its tentacles and absolute influence throughout the world, especially in Europe.
In line with its liberal capitalist credo, Trump Media & Technology will merge with Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), which will allow it to go public. According to the press release, Donald Trump's new group will go public with a starting valuation of $875 million, equivalent to 750 million euros.
The ban on access to major technology platforms, decreed on 8 January, not only angered Trump but also sparked an intense debate on a global scale about the immense power of Facebook and its top leaders, who are capable of setting themselves up as true feudal lords far above the will of presidents elected in accordance with the rules of democracy. That Trump's behaviour was quite anomalous, transgressing even the ordinary rules of democracy, could - as it did - be the subject of impeachment proceedings, but it was widely questioned around the world that a business leader, Mark Zuckerberg in the case of Facebook, whom no one had elected, could set himself up as a lord of the gallows and knife and cut off at will the voice of any citizen with whom he disagreed.
Trump thus opened a debate that is still far from being resolved, with far-reaching implications that will lead to resolutions that go beyond purely national frameworks. At stake is nothing less than the legitimacy of democracy and the right to act to preserve it. But, like any right, it must be objective and universal, so that, like it or not, or contrary to prevailing ideological currents, it does not become an ad personam tool, to be used exclusively to lampoon those who are not on the same wavelength.