Gettr

About

Gettr is a social media platform created by former Donald Trump aide Jason Miller. The app has been described as a Twitter clone for conservatives, with a mission statement of "fighting cancel culture, promoting common sense, defending free speech, challenging social media monopolies, and creating a true marketplace of ideas," though the app describes itself as "non-bias." After its launch in July 2021, it was subject to numerous troll campaigns.

History

On July 1st, 2021, former Trump aide Jason Miller announced Gettr, a Twitter-like social network. Some critics viewed it as the alternative social network that was teased by the Trump team for months after major social media companies Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter blocked Trump following the January 6th Storming of the U.S. Capitol. ^[1] As of July 6th, Trump is not on Gettr nor is he funding it, according to Miller.

The beta version of the site launched on July 1st and the site officially went live on July 4th, 2021. The site is very similar to Twitter aesthetically (shown below), and though the site does not claim a political bias, its mission statement is "fighting cancel culture, promoting common sense, defending free speech, challenging social media monopolies, and creating a true marketplace of ideas," which are all conservative talking points.^[2]

Trolling Campaigns

On July 4th, 2021, ten minutes after the site officially launched, several of its big-name accounts, such as Jason Miller, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Mike Pompeo, were hacked to read "@JubaBaghdad was here, follow me in Twitter."^[3] According to Insider,^[4] the hacker said they did it "just for fun" because it was "easy to do."

The site was also reported to be "overrun" with pornography and hentai in the days after launch.^[5] According to Mother Jones, the site's welcome message featured "spam comments left en masse" and visiting the site "involves encountering things like anime porn and repeated copies of an image depicting Hillary Clinton’s head photoshopped onto another woman’s nude body." Twitter user @ZTPetrizzo^[6] reported that users posting Sonic the Hedgehog porn to the site were getting banned, and users there argued that the pornography should be allowed under "the first amendment."

Joe Rogan Joins Gettr

At the end of December 2021, Twitter banned COVID-19 conspiracy theorist and vaccine researcher Dr. Robert Malone from Twitter for spreading COVID-19 misinformation.^[8] In early January, Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was permanently banned for the same reason.^[9] Podcast host and comedian Joe Rogan had Malone on his podcast on December 30th shortly before the ban. During the podcast, Malone introduced Rogan to Gettr, praising the social media site for allowing free speech overall (shown below). The clip was shared by the official Twitter^[13] page for Gettr.

Dr. Robert Malone on The Joe Rogan Experience: “[GETTR] is committed to not censoring.”

Now, who thinks @joerogan would be a great fit on GETTR? We would love to have him!#JoeRogan #GETTR #RobertMalone pic.twitter.com/8c5Pl4gIBJ

— GETTR (@GETTRofficial) December 31, 2021

On January 2nd, following Greene's ban from Twitter, Rogan posted a clip to Instagram from a podcast with Jordan Peterson where he describes how "Things get to terrible places one tiny step at a time" (shown below).

On the same day, Rogan posted on Twitter^[10] announcing that he joined Gettr, encouraging his Twitter followers to follow him there (shown below, left). The post gained over 54,000 likes and 11,000 retweets in four days. He posted to Gettr^[11] that day, writing, "Just in case shit over at Twitter gets even dumber, I’m here now as well. Rejoice!" gaining over 12,000 reposts and 89,000 likes in the same span of time (shown below, right).

Rogan's presence on Gettr following Greene and Malone's bans were reported on by numerous media outlets, including Fox Business, CNN and The Independent.^[12] The move was met with mixed reactions online. For example, on the day Gettr shared the Robert Malone clip, the official Gab Twitter^[14] account, another Twitter alternative focused on allowing free speech overall, commented accusing Gettr of not supporting free speech because they banned far-right voice Nick Fuentes from the platform "simply for joining," also stating Gettr bans "hate speech" (shown below).

On January 4th, Tim Pool discussed Rogan's move to Gettr on his podcast, praising Rogan for making the move and standing up for free speech (shown below). The clip gained over 255,000 views in two days.

On January 5th, Twitter^[15] user and host of Blaze TV Elijah Shaffer criticized Gettr for shadow banning him, sharing a DM allegedly between himself and a Gettr employee that talks about how the platform "[does] not tolerate hate speech, racism, discrimination or recruiting for white nationalism" (shown below). At the end of the post, he tags Rogan and writes, "So as of now, this is not a free speech platform." The post gained over 4,500 likes and 1,700 retweets in a day. On the same day, Shaffer tweeted^[16] about alleged Chinese connections to Gettr, further implying they don't allow free speech on the platform.

Features

Gettr shares much of its features with Twitter, including the ability to repost others' posts, livestream, post photos, explore a feed of trending topics and get verified. Its character limit per post is 777 (as opposed to Twitter's 280) and videos up to three minutes in length can be posted (Twitter's is 2:20).^[7]

Search Interest

External References