Social Network of Trump Supporters Turns Out to be a Receptacle for IS Propaganda
GETTR, the social network founded by associates and supporters of Donald Trump, is in practice also a place where propaganda for IS is rampant.
GETTR was founded last month by, among others, Jason Miller, a former spokesperson for the ex-president, and receives financial backing from Miles Guo, a business partner of Steve Bannon. The network profiles itself as a beacon of free speech and thus opposes Twitter and Facebook.
But that free port also attracts other people. For example, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank that monitors online extremism, and Politico discovered that a platform is also a place for terrorist propaganda.
Several accounts, at least 250 according to Politico, post beheading videos, memes about violence against the West and messages pro-terrorist group IS. Politico notes that some cases will be removed, but several images reported to GETTR were still online days later.
Detecting harmful or extreme material is a difficult task, even for the more mature social networks. This is partly why Twitter and Facebook work via the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, a database with extremist material to identify cases and take them offline quickly.
GETTR is not a member of that. Politico also asked GETTR to comment on its findings, but the platform did not comment.