Two of former President Donald Trump’s biggest competitors in the social media space, GETTR and Parler, have welcomed his soon-to-be-launched platform Truth Social.
GETTR CEO Jason Miller and Parler top executive George Farmer said Wednesday that they have maintained good ties to Trump and are not worried about increased competition within the marketplace for free-speech-focused platforms.
“You can have quite a broad array of free-speech-orientated social media sites, which are trying to cater to that growing market of people who don’t necessarily want strict moderation policies in their social media,” Farmer said at the Pivot MIA conference in Miami Beach. “The world is growing in our space. There’s definitely more competition, but I think that there’s a good reason for all of us to exist.”
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Trump Media and Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes said earlier this month that TRUTH Social was still undergoing beta testing and would be released by the end of March, facing delays partly due to infrastructure problems.
Trump, removed from almost every major social media platform such as Facebook and Twitter following his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, announced he was creating Truth Social last October to stand up to the Big Tech companies.
However, social media platforms popular with right-leaning users, such as GETTR and Parler, have had difficulties attracting a more mainstream user base as they try to expand, a major obstacle to conservatives hoping for an end to the liberal chokehold on social media.
Most social media platforms focused on anti-censorship and free speech, such as GETTR and Parler, have often become pigeon-holed as conservative websites because their users are typically right-leaning.
Both the platforms have sprung up in the past few years because of the increased content moderation and censorship by social media giants, such as Facebook and Twitter.
Miller, one of Trump’s top former advisers, said he wasn’t concerned about increased competition from Truth Social hurting GETTR.
“I’m actually looking forward to it,” Miller said at the Pivot MIA conference. “I’m going to see the president this afternoon. I’ll make the pitch again to say @realDonaldTrump is all reserved and ready for you.”
Miller said he would push Trump and others to be on multiple social media platforms at the same time.
He added that new user sign-ups on GETTR usually coincided with Trump announcements or when larger platforms censored users.
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Farmer said part of his focus is expanding into online areas that Trump and Truth Social may not be direct competitors, such as making his platform popular among cryptocurrency users and those who use non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.
