Monday, March 22, 2021

Social Media for Sociopaths

 Being aware of the dozens of failed Trump businesses, I am tickled pink by the idea that the Former Guy wants to start his own social media platform:

"I do think that we're going to see President Trump returning to social media in probably about two or three months here, with his own platform," Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told Fox News' "#MediaBuzz" on Sunday. "And this is something that I think will be the hottest ticket in social media, it's going to completely redefine the game, and everybody is going to be waiting and watching to see what exactly President Trump does."

Besides the fact that he failed at selling vodka and steaks, running airlines, football teams, modeling agencies/escort services, and operating casinos, Vulgarmort isn't exactly tech-savvy, so, if he's not just blowing smoke,  he would probably outsource any coding to some Russian outfit which will lard it with all sorts of malware.  Being greedy, I imagine any 'social media' company run by him would operate on a subscription basis, offering much worse service than the free platforms out there, but also selling users' personal data.

The prognosis for a Trump-owned social media platform is pretty bad, for reasons other than the guy's incompetence.  While right-wingers love their epistemic closure, their raison d'etre is to antagonize liberals.  In a closed system, without 'libs', their trolling would be impossible- it's not like these people would use a 'right-only safe space' to debate each other over marginal tax rates and the role of the federal government in an idealized 'Reaganite' republic.  If Trump manages to pull it off, it'll last six months, maybe a year.

Trump was actually offered a 40% stake in Parler if he agreed to use the platform exclusively, but nothing ever materialized, and Parler is a disaster.  This is probably as good an offer he'll ever get from an existing social media platform, but Trump being Trump, he muffed it.

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