Gettr

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Gettr
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Screenshot
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Screenshot of the Gettr landing page
Web address gettr.com
Available in English
Owner Chainnov Inc.[1]
Launched July 1, 2021 (2021-07-01)
Current status Online

Gettr (stylized GETTR) is a controlled opposition[2] alt-tech social media platform that claims to be targeted to American conservatives.[3][4] It was created by Jason Miller, a former Donald Trump aide and spokesman, and launched officially on July 4, 2021.[5][6] Its user interface and feature set have been described as very similar to those of Twitter.[7][8] Despite claiming to be a free speech platform, the site has been criticized for its censorship of some users,[9][10] including pro-white activists such as Nick Fuentes.[11] This has often been attributed to an outcry from progressive journalists, who condemned the initial prevalence of controversial content they deemed to be politically unacceptable under the mainstream cultural consensus.[12] The platform also experienced issues beginning shortly after launch, including users flooding it with pornography, and the hacking of some high-profile accounts.[13][14][3][15][16]

Background

After the protests at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, several social media sites restricted Donald Trump's social media usage, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, who banned him from their platforms.[7] Platforms also suspended some Trump supporters and others who were sharing views they considered politically unacceptable. These actions led to a backlash from conservatives who were censored by social media and other Big Tech sites.

After the bans, Trump began looking for alternative platforms,[8][4] eventually creating his own blog to share similar content to what he had previously posted on Twitter. After poor reception, he closed the blog shortly after its launch.[7][17] Jason Miller, then Trump's senior advisor and spokesman since 2016, for several months teased plans by the Trump team to create a social network of their own.[18]

History

In June 2021, it was reported that Miller had left Trump's team to become CEO of a tech startup.[7][19] A beta version of Gettr launched on July 1, 2021, after being added to the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store in mid-June.[8] The platform can also be accessed via the web.[20] Gettr officially launched on July 4, 2021.[5] According to the Apple App Store listing, Gettr is developed by a company called Chainnov Inc.[1] Miller is CEO,[5] and former Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh is a media affairs consultant for the company.[21] Miller said of his motivations for creating the site, "People were being de-platformed and realising that the tech giants, so to speak, had [decided] to ally themselves with the more left-of-centre folks, who want to silence people all over."[22]

Miller has said the company was financed by a "consortium of international investors" including a foundation tied to Guo Wengui, a Chinese businessman and fugitive with connections to former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and Mar-a-Lago.[21][23] Guo has said he is an adviser to the platform.[23] Media sites tied to Guo have suggested that the platform and its logo were his ideas, though Miller has downplayed the connections.[24] The Daily Beast reported that Gettr was a retooled version of Guo's Chinese internet app, Getome, which Miller confirmed.[21] Getome accounts were wiped before relaunching as Gettr.[25]

On the day of its beta launch, Gettr had several thousand users.[26] Bloomberg reported that Trump would not be joining the platform, nor would he have any financial stake in it, and that he was still planning to create a platform of his own.[27] On July 4, 2021, the day of the platform's official launch, Miller stated that it had "more than half a million users".[15] According to estimates from Sensor Tower, Gettr has received 1.3 million downloads globally since June 2021, with the United States and Brazil having the most downloads.[28]

The platform was briefly hacked on its launch day. Some high-profile Gettr accounts, including those of Miller, U.S. representative Majorie Taylor Greene, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and Bannon were compromised and had their account names changed to show the name of the alleged attacker and a message supporting Palestine.[29][16][30][28] A few days later, a hacker was able to scrape almost 90,000 email addresses through their application programming interface.[29]

Content

Content on Gettr is mostly right-wing in nature, and includes promotion groups like the Proud Boys as well as posts by more mainstream conservative figures including Sean Hannity, Kevin McCarthy, and Mike Pompeo.[31][32]

In an appearance on Newsmax, Miller touted the app as a "place people won't be canceled", and described the site's moderation system, which he said had already identified "left-of-center people" to "catch the/m and delete some of that content". Despite this, Gettr does not tolerate hate speech, racist or discriminatory content, which, under the mainstream cultural consensus, includes recruitment for white nationalist causes on the platform. Applying a double standard, it does allow left-wing extremists on the platform.[33]

Controversies

Trending topics on the platform on the day of Gettr's beta launch included pro-Trump slogans, as well as more controversial content, such as hashtags including ethnic slurs and references to information about the origins of COVID-19 that contradicted the politically correct view as espoused by the mainstream media.[8][12] Beginning shortly after Gettr launched, the platform was inundated with pornography, including hentai.[13][14][3] According to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and Politico, propaganda from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) also began to appear on the platform, including memes encouraging violence against the Western world, beheading videos, and a meme showing Trump being executed in an orange jumpsuit. The content was similar to what appears on mainstream platforms like Facebook and Twitter, according to a director of Tech Against Terrorism, but unlike Gettr the other sites have automatic filtering and removal systems in place, and partner through the nonprofit Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism to remove extremist material. In response to questions about the content, Miller said that ISIL was trying to attack Trump supporters because Trump had "wiped [ISIL] off the face of the earth", and that "the only [ISIL] members still alive are keyboard warriors hiding in caves and eating dirt cookies".[31]

In August 2021, a review of online activity on Gettr by Politico found that the platform "is inundated with terrorist propaganda spread by supporters of Islamic State".[34] Also in August, a study published by the Stanford Internet Observatory found that Gettr has "very few — if any — mechanisms for detecting spam, violent content, pornography, and child exploitation imagery" and that "Gettr appears to rely entirely on community reporting mechanisms to find sensitive content and illegal child-related imagery".[35] The study found sixteen examples of images on Gettr that were flagged by PhotoDNA, an image-identification technology, as "child exploitation imagery."[35]

Platform

Gettr has been described as a conservative social media platform.[4] Gettr describes itself as a "non-bias [sic] social network", and bills itself as an alternative to mainstream social networks, writing in a mission statement that its aims include "fighting cancel culture, promoting common sense, defending free speech, challenging social media monopolies, and creating a true marketplace of ideas".[7][8] The name is a portmanteau of "getting together".[5][23]

Gettr's user interface and feature set have been described as very similar to those of Twitter,[7][8] with some journalists describing it as a "clone".[12][36] Users can write posts on the platform of up to 777 characters in length, upload images, and upload and edit videos that are up to three minutes long.[5] Users can repost other users' posts, as well as explore a feed of trending topics.[7] The platform also includes the ability for users to be verified.[4] In app stores, the Gettr app is rated "M" for "mature" by the ESRB, meaning it is recommended for those 17 years of age and older.[7] Miller said that the platform plans to add monetization via a "tipping" feature, livestreaming, and a platform to facilitate political donations.[5] Technology journalist Kara Swisher described Gettr in an episode of the podcast Pivot as easy to use and as "a cleaner Twitter", but said "it suffers from a lot of misinformation".[37]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ https://www.dailyveracity.com/2022/01/05/gettr-global-communications-director-ebony-bowden-anti-trump-pro-obama-past-revealed/
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ https://www.businessinsider.com/gettr-pro-trump-site-bans-pundit-n-word-2022-1
  10. ↑ https://www.newsweek.com/right-wing-social-site-bans-controversial-term-reaction-1663084
  11. ↑ https://bigleaguepolitics.com/controversy-social-media-platform-gettr-is-under-fire-for-banning-nick-fuentes/
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ https://gettr.com/user/foeoftribes
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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