Is Truth Social really for free speech? Roger Stone latest ‘censored’ user on network
Ever since he was booted off social media in the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection, Donald Trump has promised to build a "free speech" alternative. That promise eventually arrived in February 2022 in the form of Truth Social, a social media network modeled on Twitter. However, it appears that censorship is just one of the many issues plaguing the platform.
The "free speech alternative" has widely been seen as just another fundraising ploy by the former President, and with good reason. Ever since its launch, users have been added to a waitlist, slowly gaining access to the platform, much to many MAGA fans' fury. As a result, many have since switched to other alt-right sites like Parler, quickly eroding any interest the app had during launch day.
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Needless to say, things aren't going very well for Truth Social. Despite being touted by the Trump family, the app has become something of a joke even for conservatives. The latest in a long list of people to issue complaints is Roger Stone, who claims he is being "censored" on the platform.
Is Truth Social really for free speech?
Donald Trump may have championed Truth Social as a free-speech alternative, but in reality, it appears to be anything but that. Just like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, it appears Truth Social too relies heavily on content moderation systems, mostly run by artificial intelligence. In January 2022, Fox News reported that San Fransisco-based Hive would be behind the moderation system on Truth Social.
CEO Devin Nunes defended that decision, saying it was to make the platform "family-friendly". He did however say the platform won't "censor anybody because they have a different opinion about, for example, a COVID vaccine." In reality though, it appears Truth Social's moderation policies are extremely strict, angering its few users such as Stone. On April 2, Stone put up a post of a Trump campaign button with the caption, "Trump also warns again a growing threat of terrorism by radical Islam mix in the predicted the 9/11 attack."
A short while later, that post was slapped with a 'sensitive content' warning label, similar to Facebook. In a follow-up post, Stone asked "Why would this be censored content on TruthSocial?" with the same image. This time, however, there was no warning label. A day later, Stone told The Daily Beast the incident was "a glitch", but the label still appears to be up at the time of reporting.
The incident is perhaps a bit ironic for Stone, who was also once booted off Jason Miller's Gettr platform in August 2021. At the time, the platform was trying to boot all fake Stone profiles, and accidentally suspended Stone's real one, which it later restored. Luckily, Stone still has his Truth Social profile, but it appears he's posting out into the abyss. Truth Social, like many alt-right platforms that have emerged over the past few years, has reportedly become a ghost town.
Stone's censorship claim is just one of the many complaints Truth Social has been hit with, but in true Donald Trump style, is likely to be ignored because it doesn't affect the former President directly.