A new social media platform for supporters of President Trump has emerged as his backers continue to migrate away from traditional forums such as Reddit.
The new website, thedonald.win, was created by users of the r/The_Donald subreddit after Reddit became more controlling about what content could be posted in the forum. In June, the company announced that the subreddit would be “quarantined.”
The quarantine, which is still in effect, doesn’t ban the forum but removes certain features and restricts how its content is shared. It also includes a warning about viewing the subreddit.
The new website is structured similarly to r/The_Donald. It includes features that allow users to upvote and downvote posts and comments as well as filter content by “hot,” “new,” “rising,” and “top.”
According to a post from a moderator last week, the platform has been a long time coming. The person said there were fears that if Reddit found out about the new website, it would ban r/The_Donald.
“We’ve been developing this site in secret for the better part of the year,” the moderator wrote. “Believe me, not letting it slip was difficult, with the rising tide of people begging for a backup as Reddit got worse and worse. We felt the need to keep it as tight-lipped as possible for fear that Reddit would find out and find reason to ban us over it to crush our movement.”
The moderator said they felt as if they needed to hurry and release the website after Reddit began limiting the ability of users to discuss the alleged whistleblower at the center of the impeachment effort, 33-year-old CIA analyst Eric Ciaramella.
Reddit warned r/The_Donald about using his name last week, telling users “posts that do nothing more than attempt to focus mob attention on this alleged individual cross a line.”
The new forum has eight rules posted along the side of the website: users must be Trump supporters, not engage in racism, follow the law, not reveal anyone’s real identity, be respectful, not be a self-promoter, ask moderation questions privately, and “don’t be dumb.”
