

The power was not that they offered him a place to speak. The disconnect highlights the actual utility of social platforms for Trump - especially of Twitter, where he focused almost all of his efforts. It has been downhill for The Desk of Donald J.

According to the Post, Trump’s blog peaked at 159,000 social interactions - paltry by the standards of a man used to seeing social metrics in the millions - and the peak arrived on his blog’s first day. What Trump’s blog lacked, though, was reach. Last Tuesday, a day after DeSantis signed the bill, Trump published 10 separate blog posts on all manner of subjects. Indeed, on most days in recent weeks, he had taken to his blog to do just that. In truth, nothing has happened since January 6 that took away Trump’s ability to speak and express his opinion. “This will lead to more speech, not less speech because speech that’s inconvenient to the narrative will be protected.” “We are protecting Floridians’ ability to speak and express their opinions,” DeSantis said.

Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that would make it illegal for social networks to deplatform candidates for elected office, he used First Amendment language.
#Clouthub freespace wall streetjournal free#
In the wake of Trump’s deplatforming, his supporters have framed the issue almost exclusively as a question of free speech. And the second is whether the platform should amplify their account or their posts to other users - what the technologist Aza Raskin has called “freedom of reach.” The first is whether they should have the ability to post at all - platform-level freedom of speech. There are two primary questions we wind up asking about problematic users of social networks. But the lessons from Trump’s failed blog are actually quite important, and worth a moment’s reflection as we wait for his next incarnation online. Trump still wants to launch some other platform - timing not yet determined - and didn’t like that this first attempt was being mocked as a loser, according to a Trump adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly about the former president’s plans.Īs someone who both found Trump and his presidency repugnant and who makes my living posting to the web, I was of course delighted to read about the former president’s crushing defeat in the rough-and-tumble world of digital content creation. On its last day, the site received just 1,500 shares or comments on Facebook and Twitter - a staggering drop for someone whose every tweet once garnered hundreds of thousands of reactions. Upset by reports from the Washington Post and other outlets highlighting its measly readership and concerns that it could detract from a social media platform he wants to launch later this year, Trump ordered his team Tuesday to put the blog out of its misery, advisers said. Here are Drew Harwell and Josh Dawsey in the Washington Post, in a sparkling story whose every sentence I encourage you to read and savor: In his posts, Trump regularly promoted the lie that the election had been stolen, attacked his fellow Republicans for insufficient fealty, and talked about how much better life had been when he was in office.īut now the blog is over. For 29 days, the site offered a vision of the nightmare universe we would be living in had the social networks not banned Trump following his incitement of a coup against his own government. Trump" offered the sort of staccato, dyspeptic rants that until recently drove 90 percent of American news cycles. Launched on May 4, “From The Desk of Donald J. Last month, after months of hyping up a forthcoming “social media platform” that would serve as a new home base online following his removal from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and other networks, former President Donald Trump unveiled a simple blog.
