America continues to be divided and this division has started way back since 2016 when Trump first got elected as president of the United States. Back then, a number of protesters stormed his home in New York demanding he resign even before stepping into office while others continued to protest calling him all sorts of names.

The real estate mogul had faced some of the worst insults and dehumanizing criticisms over his last four years in the office but that’s because in America, anyone can merely write or say anything about anyone in the name of democracy which is why the country is so adorable by many and often referred to as the “Free country”.

Just like the internet whereby people feel they are more open to express their opinion even more openly without any scrutiny, this is the vision of the America the Right Wing political spectrum and the so-called conservatives want but the question as to where the line between the term “Free Speech” and “Hate Speech” is drawn can be blurry.

In American’s governing system, there seems to be no limit to the freedom of speech anyone gets but there is a limit when it starts becoming a threat and abusive that could cause violence and political crisis which could often lead to the downturn of the government but once again, when is the line drawn?

Over the last four years, a number of media outlets have written a lot of things about Trump many of which are defaming while his political opposition continued to find fault in everything he says or do which often lead to his own side getting more resentful towards the other side and that has caused a great amount of friction between the Right and Left, Republicans and Democrats, Liberals and the Conservatives.

After losing the November 2020’s Presidential election, Trump continued the rhetoric that there was voter’s fraud and that the votes should be recounted multiple times while also filing some legal suites against some states where he’d lose the election meanwhile a lot of people continued to call this rhetoric “Baseless”.

Could be baseless in fact because he has no true evidence whatsoever and he continued to lose each time the votes are being counted meanwhile, during his four years as a President, his political opposition continued to strike against him claiming he stole the election from their then candidate as well as colliding with the Russian government to aid his election all which continued to be the dent his presidency had to endure for four years.

But the political landscape in the country had continued to be divided which many had blamed popular media outlets such as CNN and Fox news for while others blamed Trump being the leader and his inability to unite the country despite his opposition publicly ridiculing him.

A good example would be the situation when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi publicly tore the President’s statement during the State of the Union 2020 event publicly which was a really petty behavior from an 80 years old woman who had worked in the government all her life.

Trump is the Scapegoat

Trump is a loud-mouth individual with big personality. Many called him a narcissist because of his “I” narratives in all of his statement which is true to some level. As a leader, the unity of the people should be your priority and whether that is Trump’s aim or not, he definitely showed that he’s willing to protect the American citizens against foreign power which had led to the banning of numerous companies unjustifiably as those are the scapegoat being used to warn other country to back off.

China whose economy has continued to closely match that of America to the point where it could supersede it in a matter of time has faced serious sanctions from Trump’s administration indirectly as a number of tech firms have been banned from operating or partnering with American companies.

Trump might be good in his own respect but the fact that the power struggle between both giant political parties in the United States meant that the leader will always be the target for scrutiny.

After having a lot of issues with Twitter over the last couple of years, his immunity is probably due to the fact that he’s the country’s president and that is why a lot of conservative and even some liberal users have been ousted from the platform because they failed to follow the community guidelines meanwhile the moderation system is biased against the Right which is a really glaring thing.

The Great Social Media Purge

During each crisis, there is always a big purge happening on social media platforms but these private companies are taking this approach because of the fact that they have advertisers and governmental regulations to face in case they do not enforce those strict rules.

Twitter and Facebook for example had faced the congress over accusations of users’ generated content on their platforms and how they moderate those contents as well as if they would take responsibility in case anythign go wrong.

Facebook had been adamant about this in the past stating it wanted its platform to be as safe but also free for everyone to express their innermost thoughts in as much as it doesn’t cause harm to others. This is the primary regulations any free-speech advocate had to adhere to in order to not cross the line but then when the “Free Speech” is being used to target others in abusive manners to the point of causing political unrest and violence, then a stricter measure needs to be taken to curb it off.

But also there have been situations in the past whereby serious political unrests were due to groups springing up from Facebook or via a Twitter discussion. And the fact that these for-profit organizations have to be appealing to their advertisers in order to run successful over the internet is an obligation they need to adhere to, that is why their moderation regulations are strict.

The Birth of Alt-Social Media Platforms

There is Gab, FreeSpeech TV, Parler and a boatload of other unknown social media platforms across the internet but Parler seems to have gained a traction since its born back in 2018 when a number of Right Wing activists like Milo Yiannopoulos was ousted from Facebook and Instagram.

The platform had thrived over the last couple of years garnering about 4 million users and is home to other popular fringe activists who could no longer secure a place on the mainstream media platforms anylonger. These platforms are meant to be the alternative to the heavily-regulated social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

Meanwhile the problem with such services is they get infiltrated over a short period of time whereby some individuals starts posting threats an completely horrendous statements on them which is part of what led to Gab being flushed down the drain quickly and the same is happening to Parler.

Trump’s social network

The entire political landscape in the United States can be complicated and hard to narrate from the outside but in short, the recent attack on the US Capitol Hill has caused Twitter and others including Apple, Google, Facebook and even Amazon to take stricter measures to curb these narratives through their platforms which is what has caused Trump to be kicked out of Twitter permanently and indefinitely on Facebook.

But Trump wasn’t the only one to go down the drain as Parler which is supposed to be the new place for the other 88 million Trump followers who followed him on his @RealDonaldTrump Twitter account as Parler is already being booted off Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

My point is what If Donald Trump starts his own social network? Being the kind of person he is, there is a likelihood he’ll come up with his own service which will be served across to his audience whereby they can discuss freely amongst themselves.

This will also be possible considering the newer stance Facebook is facing as a monopoly in the Social media industry which could see the company losing its biggest assets – WhatsApp and Instagram. In this kind of atmosphere, a fringe social network by Donald Trump will further divide the political landscape in the country and if Trump will be contesting in 224, he definitely need a platform to use as his megaphone to his supporters and his best bet is to go for it and make his own.