According to a report from NBC, social media platforms designed to lure in fans of Donald Trump are being criticized by prominent conservative influencers who claim they get little benefit from posting on them as they return back to Twitter, Instagram and others where there is a bigger audience.
As Ben Goggin reports, Parler, Gettr, and the newly launched Truth Social from Trump, are not the first choice of conservatives who are intent on developing their audiences.
In interviews, more than a few of them called the sites "echo chambers" that are deadends when it comes to influencing debate and recruiting new adherents who may be on the fence.
In an interview with Roland Johns, who saw Instagram pull the plug on his page -- keeping him from reaching his 35,000 followers -- the conservative sites hold little appeal.
"Johns, who now runs the Instagram page for his college Republicans club, was one of the many young people who attended this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, where new apps and tech platforms were making buzz by jockeying for attention via shoutouts from keynote speakers and stations on the convention floor," the report states adding that Johns was not impressed.
"It’s all just a Band-Aid because it’s our own little kind of echo chamber,” Johns explained, with conservative content creator Alex Weber agreeing, "I think the challenge that a lot of these newer ones have is to not be an echo chamber for people who hold similar beliefs,” before adding, "I think why Instagram and Facebook and all these are so impactful is because you’ve got all different types of people.”
According to the complaints, it's hard to add new followers which is why they return to more mainstream platforms.
"Those platforms have attracted some users and conservative influencers, but they remain far smaller than their larger rivals and have so far proven unable to attract mainstream audiences, through which many conservative influencers have amassed major followings," the report states. "It hasn’t been for lack of support from big-name Republicans. Former President Donald Trump’s app, Truth Social, made its debut on Apple’s App Store in late February and received high-profile name checks at CPAC from speakers like Kimberly Guilfoyle — Donald Trump Jr.’s partner and a former adviser to Trump. Gettr, another app that bills itself as a free speech alternative to big social media platforms, was a prominent sponsor of the conference."
Isabel Brown, with over 100,000 Instagram followers, claims she is fine with the smaller platforms, but has doubts about some of the newer ones coming online being successful.
Describing them as "echo chambers” of “conservative thoughts, statements and values,” she added, "I think it’s a mistake for us to abandon where the rest of culture is. How are you supposed to grow your movement if you’re not reaching other people where they’re at in a language they understand.”
Turning Point USA field representative Cristian Clementi complained about Trump's Truth Social, stating, "The people that they’re trying to reach are on the major platforms. I think it’s kind of counterintuitive to make your own platform, but it’s all everybody that agrees with you rather than the people that might be in the middle or don’t agree with you at all.”
You can read more here.
