Trump ban brings about Twitter exodus

It took only hours for the president’s followers to start looking for social media alternatives.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

President Donald Trump has gone from president to pariah with internet services banning him outright, from Twitter to TikTok, following the Jan. 6 rally which turned into a riot breaching the U.S. Capitol building.

Twitter permanently banned the president’s account on Friday for “inciting violence,” capping off a rocky relationship between the platform and Trump, even as the president has used Twitter as his main megaphone for reaching his supporters. His account had 88 million followers.

It took only hours for the president’s followers to start looking for social media alternatives. “‘Goodbye Twitter’ trended during the early-morning hours Saturday as people continued to come to grips with the deplatforming of the president,” the New York Post reported.

“I’m a small MAGA account and I have lost 400 followers in 3 days. Goodbye Twitter. You don’t want me. I don’t want you. I’m at Parler @snakeoil,” said one Trump supporter, the Post reported. Parler is a competing app to Twitter which appeals to conservatives.

Celebrities and well-known pundits also announced they were leaving. Kirstie Alley of Cheers fame likened the ban to “slavery.”

Even Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, recently poisoned, reacted negatively to Twitter’s announcement.

“I think the ban of Donald Trump on Twitter is an unacceptable act of censorship,” he tweeted.

Conservative pundits like Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and Caroline Glick announced they were moving to Parler.

Many others had the same idea. Parler’s servers crashed moments after Trump’s ban was announced. But those looking to leave Twitter may have to look elsewhere than Parler, at least for the near future.

Amazon suspended the app from its Web-hosting service over the weekend, joining Apple and Google which had also dropped it.

The three tech giants justified their decision by saying that Parler didn’t do a sufficient job in policing violent content on its platform.

“This was a coordinated attack by the tech giants to kill competition in the market place,” Parler’s CEO John Matze said on Saturday.

He added that Parler may be down for a week “as we rebuild from scratch.”

Trump himself needs to find a Twitter replacement. The White House issued a statement saying Trump is “negotiating with various other sites” and is considering “building out our own platform in the near future.”