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Spanish – President Donald Trump was expelled from all social media. He was suspended, censored, and permanently banned from the most used sites. That’s why he went to the Gab application.
https://t.co/SCa1B9jrw0 pic.twitter.com/7NQeoKoEvv
— Gab.com (@getongab) January 10, 2021
In fact, Gab’s founder, Andrew Torba, took Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” and with an embroidered cap proclaimed: “Make Free Speech Great Again.”
He claims that there is no freedom of speech in the App Store and Google. Therefore, his company created parallel browsers.
Keep the faith. Get on https://t.co/J3Rfto6fi3 https://t.co/YxUdqPaB2g
— Gab.com (@getongab) January 9, 2021
The platform not only allows freedom of expression but also encourages it before each publication.
Since it is the only platform that allows access to the president, it is not working continuously. The page is constantly crashing. In part because of the massive migration, added to the fact that it is suffering restrictions.
The digital ostracism against Trump even reached his email.
According to Financial Times correspondent David Lee, there were no emails from Trump for more than 48 hours.
He highlights it as almost unheard of for the president sent 33 emails in the first six days of January.
One of the services the team used, Campaign Monitor, confirmed that it had suspended Trump’s access.
There hasn't been any Trump emails for more than 48 hours. Almost unheard of — he sent 33 in the first six days of Jan; 2,500+ last year. (h/t @TrumpEmail)
At least one of the services the team used, @CampaignMonitor, has suspended Trump's access, the company confirmed.
— Dave Lee (@DaveLeeFT) January 9, 2021
Ideological persecution is not limited to the president. Like-minded senators, secretaries, and even sympathizers have suffered significant losses in their numbers and their accounts have been suspended.
The most prominent case is that of lawyer Sidney Powell who was in charge of investigating irregularities in the November presidential elections.
The Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, denounced with graphics how in recent days the Democrats have benefited in the number of followers on Twitter because of the ideological bias, while the Republicans have been harmed.
This is how you create an echo chamber… pic.twitter.com/aPDA37qKS0
— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) January 9, 2021
Restrictions against Trump on Twitter have even prevented him from using official accounts like the one for the president of the United States and also the one for the White House.
any attempts by trump to evade the ban using @POTUS or @WhiteHouse will be removed, twitter tells mehttps://t.co/BJ0AC0MrBN
— chris mills rodrigo (@chrisismills) January 9, 2021
Since July 2020, in the face of the first intense wave of censorship against Trump, his followers began migrating to Parler, which is very similar to Twitter. But one where supporters of the US president are not silenced.
Four months later, it became the most downloaded application due to allegations of irregularities in the presidential elections.
Then, in January 2021, after Trump was expelled from Twitter, there was a mass exodus to Parler.
But they were punished by the oligopolies. Apple announced that it would remove Parler from the App Store, and it no longer appears in Play Store for cell phones operating with Android.
By definition, an oligopoly is a market situation in which the number of sellers is very small so that they control and monopolize the sales of certain products as if there were a monopoly.
This applies to the current situation. In fact, Mozilla, an Internet browser, announced that it would not allow access to Parler.
Even Amazon, under pressure from its employees, denied the possibility of accessing Parler on its web services.
The same is happening with Gab. It no longer appears in the App Store. However, it is possible to join the platform from a computer.
And that’s where the president can now express himself. This has allowed the application to grow exponentially.
Hello, World! pic.twitter.com/z4pTEwViXo
— Gab.com (@getongab) January 10, 2021
The power of social networks as an oligopoly
Historically, the press has been known as the fourth power. Now we must ask if that power also extends to social networks or if they have become a power in themselves, taking into account that they have the power to even silence a president and whoever sympathizes with him.
For a republic to function, there must be a system of checks and balances, where there is a balance of power.
The three powers of the republic are judicial, executive, and legislative. In the US, the last two are now in the hands of the Democratic Party, while the fourth power and the new power acquired by the social media are also at its service.
Now it is up to the citizen to be an overseer of the powers that be, to avoid being at the mercy of an ever larger state and the oligopolies that function as its propaganda apparatus.
