:quality(70):focal(1029x540:1039x550)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/thenational/G25MRY7MAWPYBBXJ4FUPNNZXN4.jpg)
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/thenational/326930c8-426e-4292-8915-488062faf4ec.png)
Podcast host Joe Rogan has tweeted that he’s joined Gettr, a new social media platform created by an aide to former US president Donald Trump.
It is branded as “the marketplace for ideas” and Rogan, who says he doesn't align with a particular political party, now joins high-profile conservatives from the US, including former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, on the platform.
It's viewed as an alternative to Twitter, which has permanently banned the accounts of Trump, for inciting violence during the US Capitol riots, and US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, for spreading misinformation about Covid-19.
Gettr, which launched on July 4, was founded by former Trump adviser and spokesman Jason Miller. The name is a portmanteau of "getting together” or "get together".
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/thenational/IIR6PKMUHJF3BC2FWPRHKPEU3I.png)
"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," said Miller in an interview with British newspaper The Times.
Gettr's interface and features are similar to Twitter in that users can write posts of up to 777 characters or upload images or videos that can be reshared and liked. There’s also a daily trending topics feed, although in the past they’ve been shown to include racist and anti-Semitic slurs as well as reference theories about the origins of Covid-19.
“A brand-new social media platform founded on the principle of free speech, independent thought and rejecting political censorship and ‘cancel culture’,” reads its mission statement on the website.
However, it hasn't been exactly been smooth sailing since the launch. Although it is said to have almost three million users (and 400,000 daily active users) as of November 2021, the platform has also had its issues. Politico reported that there’s been propaganda posted from ISIS, including memes encouraging violence against the Western world, as well as an attack by hackers with explicit images flooding the site.
In December, Gettr also booted American commentator and white nationalist Nicholas Fuentes from the platform for violating their terms of use, although it didn't go into much detail. “What is the point of a free-speech alternative to Twitter... that doesn’t even honour free speech?,” wrote Fuentes on Telegram.
In app stores, the app is rated “M” for mature, meaning it is recommended for those aged 17 and older.