For too long we have let a small handful of Big Tech and social media monopolies dictate the laws of free speech. Too many of these companies, free speech is great...so long as you agree with them. If you don't, the filters immediately go up, the algorithm is changed, and the censorship begins. Or worse, the deplatforming begins. You or someone you know is voted off Cyber Island, never to be heard from again.
So what gives these Big Tech and social media monopolies the right to play Judge, Jury, and Executioner with our free speech rights? Antitrust laws have historically united western markets from New York to London, but, today, these laws are largely ignored as stock prices continue to rise and weak-kneed politicians fail to muster the courage to use their voices to defend ours.
We need a new social media platform that defends our freedom of speech. This is why we founded the new social media platform, GETTR. GETTR is committed to challenging anti-competitive social media giants and creating a marketplace of ideas where individuals will never be subjected to "cancel culture" simply for sharing their political beliefs.
There is no better moment to stand tall and united against these monopolies than right now. Over the past several years, we have seen Big Tech breach the democratic ideals they were founded on with increasingly damning consequences. Companies routinely sharing customer data with the Chinese government, Big Tech caught spying on pro-freedom Hong Kong protestors, and everyday platforms selling user information to left-leaning governments to bolster their surveillance regimes across North America and Europe.
Working as President Donald J. Trump's Senior Advisor and Chief Spokesman, I witnessed firsthand the lengths the Big Tech and social media establishment will go to silence voices that threaten the status quo, with the most immediate threat coming from "woke" social media monopolies discriminating against conservative thought. You know it just as well as I do – if the Big Tech and social media companies are willing to deplatform a sitting President of the United States, they won't hesitate one second to take away your right to free speech.
I have also seen the same censorship at work in the United Kingdom, silencing conservative voices such as Piers Morgan, Andrew Neil, Douglas Murray, and even Prime Minister Boris Johnson, all attacked simply for condemning 'cancel culture' and defending free speech.
As the attacks on influential young activists in the majority-won Brexit campaign by popular media has shown, many British voices are being sidelined. With the launch of GB News last month, there is an appetite for free speech in the UK, and those hungry are no longer a silent majority.
Now we have GETTR, a global social media platform I believe will change the world. We have brought together experts from every sector to design a platform that gives autonomy back to the users while ensuring that free speech advocates have the same access to cutting-edge technology as the Silicon Valley thought police.
What could this new future of online expression on GETTR look like? I point to historic thought leaders like Ben Franklin, William Wilberforce, and Margaret Thatcher. These trailblazers challenged the status quo and encouraged communities in which all were welcome to freely debate.
Public discourse and diversity of thought has often been the first to disappear in authoritarian censorship regimes. One of the first laws enforced by Pol Pot during the Cambodian Civil War was the prohibition of gathering in cafés. The same legislation was enacted by Cuba's Fidel Castro to secure his regime's coup d'état. In the twenty-first century, social media platforms have become the public gathering place, and digital freedom of speech is restricted in lieu.
GETTR is necessary because it presents a community truly built on free speech in a current environment that is regulated to favor those in power. It supports the common sense of the people instead of the ideologies of the elite. It gives voice to those who stand against the status quo, challenging the undemocratic powers that have for so long dominated the digital landscape.
And GETTR is really, really fun. Longer posts, longer videos, with the ability to import your tweet history upon creating your GETTR account.
If you love free speech, get on GETTR today.
