Donald Trump is still President of the United States until January 20.

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Dennis Van Tine / STAR MAX / IPx / AP / SIPA

  • Two days after the riots on Capitol Hill, orchestrated by pro-Trump activists, Twitter decided to permanently ban the American president's account, depriving him of his main communication tool.

  • Donald Trump has indicated that he wants to fall back on other sites, such as the ultra-conservative platforms Gab or Parler.

  • The American president also indicated, in a tweet posted on Friday, wanting to create “his own platform” to continue to address his supporters.

"Account suspended" ... Followed by nearly 88 million people, the account of the American president @realDonaldTrump now displays a completely empty page.

Two days after the brutal eruption of pro-Trump supporters on Capitol Hill, Twitter permanently suspended the account of the American president, explaining that it had taken this unprecedented measure in the face of "the risk of new incitement to violence" which have been circulating on the social network for some days.

“Twitter is trying to silence me,” Donald Trump immediately protested.

The relatives and supporters of the American president have also cried censorship.

"This decision poses an obvious democratic problem", explains Florence G'sell, specialist in American digital law, and head of the digital chair at Sciences Po. "Preventing him from being expressed today is an extremely heavy ”, she adds, recalling that“ Twitter was the tool of the conquest of the power of Donald Trump ”and that the latter still collected“ the vote of more than 70 million American voters ”during the last presidential one.

"Banned" or "suspended" from most mainstream social networks

The American billionaire will probably contest the suspension of his Twitter account in the coming days, "even if the appeals have very little chance of succeeding," said Florence G'sell.

In the meantime, his son Donald Trump Jr, fearing to be also off Twitter, offered to his subscribers to use his personal site as a "mailbox" to continue to communicate.

“Don't let them shut us up.

Register at http://DONJR.COM to stay connected!

The son of the US president tweeted on Saturday.

Free Speech Is Under Attack!

Censorship is happening like NEVER before!

Don't let them silence us.

Sign up at https://t.co/835Eak6Ghi to stay connected!


If I get thrown off my social platforms I'll let you know my thoughts and where I end up.

pic.twitter.com/bO7wbfWWVr

- Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 9, 2021

In recent days, Facebook and other services like Instagram, Snapchat or Twitch have also suspended the profile of the tenant of the White House for an indefinite period.

The usually rather permissive Reddit discussion platform has also shut down a popular fan forum for the head of state for violating its hate speech policies.

After the suspension of his various accounts on the general public networks, the American president is more alone than ever.

What could be the new sounding board for Donald Trump and his supporters?

Fall back on Gab and Parler, two ultra-conservative social networks?

While waiting to one day be able to find traditional communication channels, Donald Trump could fall back on more marginal alternatives, such as the social networks Gab or Parler.

In recent days, these two ultra-conservative applications have become the refuge of supporters of the American president, upset by the policy of moderation of general public networks like Twitter or Facebook.

Faced with "record traffic" in recent hours, the social network Gab has even had to add servers.

"12 million visits in the past 12 hours, growth is exploding," said the boss of this social network on Saturday.

The social network Parler was also full of subscribers, it was the most downloaded application on Saturday in stores in the United States.

Launched in 2016, Gab presents itself as a platform that promotes “freedom of expression” and “individual freedoms”, but it is best known for being a haunt for far-right activists, even neo-Nazis.

It was on Gab that the author of a shooting that killed 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 had previously posted many anti-Semitic messages.

Created in 2018 by American businessman John Matze, the Parler application is also frequented by the American alt right, even if it now also welcomes more traditional conservative voices.

The network is a kind of cut and paste of Twitter, which now has nearly three million subscribers, and where users can post 

parley

(equivalent to a tweet).

The Speak Now app.


The great migration.

pic.twitter.com/K3VFTPWR33

- Tristan Mendès France (@tristanmf) January 8, 2021

All these alternative platforms remain marked on the right, even on the extreme right.

It is not certain that they will attract an audience as large as the 88 million followers of the late US President's @realDonaldTrump Twitter account.

The platform created by Jack Dorsey is also visited every day by nearly 186 million subscribers, while Parler has only 8 million… These alternative social networks are also now having to face the decisions of the digital giants who are calling them. provide technical services.

The Google and Apple stores, which host the Talking app, and the multinational Amazon, which hosts the app's data on its cloud service, have decided to "cut the bridges" this Sunday because of messages " inciting violence ”.

It is therefore difficult for the outgoing president to rely on these platforms to continue to communicate with his supporters ...

Start your own platform or TV channel?

The American billionaire is also considering other alternatives.

He assured that he was negotiating with other sites so that he could continue to communicate with his supporters.

In a tweet quickly deleted by the social network Twitter, Donald Trump even mentioned Friday evening the idea of ​​creating his "own platform in the near future".

The American billionaire, used to TV shows [he was presenter and co-producer of a reality TV show from 2004 to 2015] could also be tempted to create his own television channel.

On several occasions since his arrival at the White House, Trump has deplored the positioning of Fox News, not Trumpist enough for his taste.

Viewers “want an alternative now.

And me too !

He tweeted a few months ago.

During his tenure, the American president did not stop criticizing the mainstream American media, which he accused of disseminating "fake news" and "hatred" towards him.

His sidelining from major platforms, and his loathing of the mainstream media [which censored some of his statements after the election results], could now be an opportunity for the outgoing president to launch his own channel information, either from a blank sheet of paper or from existing "friendly" channels, such as One America News and NewsMax TV.

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