TRUTH Social, Donald Trump’s long-threatened social media service, was supposed to start beta testing last month. That didn’t happen. But it’s already making waves. The former president’s new media company is already in legal hot water. And it’s already being accused of malfeasance by its competitors in the world of far right social media.
As per The Daily Beast, Gab — the “free speech” service that bills itself as an alternative to Twitter and has, of course, become a hangout for neo-Nazis — has recently succumbed to a “porn bot” infestation. Over the weekend, the platform’s founder and chief executive Andrew Torba took to his own service to complain about an alleged cyberattack involving, among other things, accounts advertising “escort” services.
“The porn bots stop right now,” Torba railed in a post. “All new Gab accounts must now be manually approved by our team until further notice.” He even claimed he stayed up till 3 a.m. personally trying to “stop these porn bots.”
Who was to blame? Torba had an idea. “This is the most sophisticated attack we have seen in five years,” he wrote, “and the timing of it is incredibly interesting given that Truth Social and Rumble both raised a boatload of cash this week from hedge funds to compete with Gab.”
Yes, Torba accused Trump and Rumble, the Canadian right-wing YouTube clone, of conspiring to keep him up all hours deleting escort accounts from his beautiful service, whose own account sometimes posts images of dogs with guns. Last week, Trump announced plans to team with Rumble on TRUTH Social, which already share some infrastructure.
What will happen to the far right social media-verse when (or if?) TRUTH Social drops? Will everyone who’s been banned from Twitter and Facebook for violent content jump ship for the one owned by the guy who doesn’t even know how words work? Or will TRUTH Social never happen because it’s too shady for this world? But it’s clear places like Gab are a touch on edge.
(Via The Daily Beast)