President Trump’s 2020 campaign is considering branching out into the fledgling social media platform Parler as conservative angst grows against established social media companies.
Trump’s 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, have joined the new platform since its launch last year, according to Politico.
“It’s something [Parscale] is aware of and is checking out,” a Trump campaign official said. “We don’t currently have a plan to make a big move to the platform.”
Conservative commentator Candace Owens brought attention to the platform in December, tweeting that Parler is the “new Twitter.”
Owen’s tweet sparked an influx of 40,000 new users to the site, temporarily crashing it, Parler founder John Matze said.
“Donald Trump should just switch social media platforms altogether because everyone will follow him,” Owens said.
[Also read: Twitter co-founder points the finger at Fox News for being destructive]
Wow. Everyone just found out about the new Twitter. Just want to say that I WAS THE FIRST CONSERVATIVE TO JOIN.
This underground-railroad, word-of-mouth movement is 🔥.
Feels like a long-overdue social media rebellion. My handle is @Candace.
RT when you’re in on the secret. https://t.co/idKhzxZRKY
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) December 10, 2018
Matze’s platform has also become home to some “alt-right” personalities, such as Laura Loomer and Milo Yiannopoulos, that have been banned permanently from Facebook and Twitter. Matze says they don’t define the site, however.
“We’re pretty much bipartisan from our standpoint,” Matze said. “I really don’t want to take a stance at all on the political side of things. However, it seems extremely relevant right now for conservatives at least to build a platform where they can build trust. They feel extremely abused by social media.”
Established social media companies Facebook and Twitter, each boasting hundreds of millions more users than Parler’s roughly 100,000, are increasingly under fire from conservatives over the companies’ alleged censorship of right-wing political opinions.
Roughly two-thirds of conservatives believe the social media giants are biased against them and censoring right-wing content, according to an August 2018 poll by the Media Research Center.
Trump has taken notice of the tech companies, taking shots at them in May for Facebook banning InfoWars pundit Paul Joseph Watson and Twitter banning actor James Woods.
“I am continuing to monitor the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms. This is the United States of America — and we have what’s known as FREEDOM OF SPEECH! We are monitoring and watching, closely!!” Trump tweeted May 3.
I am continuing to monitor the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms. This is the United States of America — and we have what’s known as FREEDOM OF SPEECH! We are monitoring and watching, closely!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2019
