When Donald Trump was suspended from Twitter, Facebook and other social networks for unacceptable behavior, he vowed that he would create a network of his own in which there would be no censorship whatsoever. However, a recent investigation revealed that this is not the case.
The site Public Citizen carried out a study of Truth Social, in which it found that although it is a network that sells itself as if it were in favor of freedom of expression, the reality is that it is extremely restrictive. For example, sexual content and explicit language is prohibited, unlike as on Twitter. In addition, issues such as abortion, the assault on Capitol Hill urged by Trump or anything that questions conservative ideas are systematically censored.
“Our own investigation on the platform confirms that the site engages in shadowbanning, which consists in completely or partially blocking users’ content without warning, notice or recourse. This prevails with regard to progressive and other issues.”
Pro-abortion post banned on Truth Social
Public Citizen reported that Truth Social users do not notice a consistent system in terms of content moderation. While some people receive notices, announcements or emails, others only notice that their content is deleted and, even worse, there are some who only receive shadowban.
The result of this investigation is that Truth Social is very far from being what it promised and that, in fact, its restrictive measures make it a worse social network than Twitter, its closest competitor. And what’s worse, it seems that it only serves to give visibility to a certain established ideology: the ultra-conservative one.
“It’s not inherently problematic for Truth Social to moderate posts, but the lack of transparency could lead users to believe they’re participating in an open forum when, in reality, they’re in a curated echo chamber.”
According to this medium, the frustration of users due to this lack of transparency and freedom of expression is only going to make more people complain and thus affect the growth of the platform.
