Ex-Trump aide launches new social platform but former president won’t join

Jason Miller promises ‘cancel-free’ app as right-wing social media users scramble for safe space after widespread bans over false information and threats of violence

Jason Miller, Donald Trump’s former adviser and chief campaign spokesman, has launched a social media platform promising a “marketplace of ideas” after the former president was banned from most websites after repeatedly amplifying false claims and violating platforms’ rules concerning threats of violence.

Following a rise in Twitter and Facebook clones luring prominent Republicans and right-wing users convinced that Big Tech has censored conservatives from their platforms, GETTR bills itself as a “non-bias social network for people all over the world” that will “allow anyone to express their opinion freely”.

But the former president won’t be on it, according to Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs.

The app officially launches on 4 July, Mr Miller told Fox News.

“We think it will ultimately be a global platform – not just conservatives in the US,” he said.

He said that “realDonaldTrump” – the former president’s Twitter user name – “is waiting for him and ready to go”.

“We certainly hope President Trump will join the platform, but I’ll leave it to him to make decisions on what he’s doing,” Mr Miller said.

A screenshot of former Trump aide Jason Miller’s GETTR platform – a Twitter clone – promises ‘a marketplace of ideas.’ (GETTR)

Launched quietly earlier this month, the app includes pages for a scrolling news feed and user profiles with a search function and posts that users can interact with – similar to Twitter. Politico first reported the app’s launch on 1 July.

The app appears to have been developed by Chainnov Inc, which also developed Getome, a similar app.

GETTR went live on the Google and Apple app stores in mid-June, and they have been downloaded more than one thousand times on each.

Several prominent Trump allies – including US Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, Senator Marsha Blackburn and the right-wing cable network Newsmax – have accounts on the platform.

Mr Miller left his role as the former president’s chief spokesperson after taking a job as chief executive of a tech startup.

On 2 June, after less than a month from its launch, the former president abandoned his “from the desk of Donald J Trump” blog that served as his one-way “communications platform” and a “place to speak freely and safely” on his campaign website.

The blog “will not be returning”, Mr Miller said earlier month, suggesting that the blog’s removal precedes plans for the former president to join another social media platform after his widespread ban.

In a post to his website on 24 May that no longer appears to display on the website, Mr Trump said traffic “would be even greater if we were still on Twitter and Facebook, but since Big Tech has illegally banned me, tens of millions of our supporters have stopped using these platforms because they’ve become ‘boring’ and nasty”.

“This is meant to be a temporary way of getting my thoughts and ideas out to the public without the Fake News spin, but the website is not a ‘platform,’” he said. “It is merely a way of communicating until I decide on what the future will be for the choice or establishment of a platform. It will happen soon. Stay tuned!”