California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) joined Donald Trump and his GOP allies on Truth Social, where he will “expose Republican lies,” he announced Thursday.
“This could get…interesting,” he joked.
In a tongue-in-cheek comment, he greets followers in his first video post on the social media platform with, “Hey everyone, this is Governor Gavin Newsom, and I know we’re all on this platform. shape in search of the truth. ”
He then points out that eight of the 10 states with the highest crime rates in the nation are Republican-run states.
“The truth is, I haven’t been able to come up with a simple explanation for why we have a red state murder problem,” Newsom said.
“So the question is simple: what are the laws and policies of these states that are leading to such carnage?” he added.
Former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), now CEO of Truth Social, hosted Newsom. “We’re happy to have him,” he told UKTN Business, although Nunes said he didn’t agree with him “on anything.”
He insisted that Truth Social was designed to be an “open platform” regardless of political affiliation.
But although Truth Social has claimed to be an advocate of free speech and an enemy of censorship, the operation has developed an extremely conservative and predictable outlook that highlights Trump’s relentless messaging.
The site often features gushing praise of Trump and posts few backlash to his comments. Trump said the quiet part out loud earlier this year when he told UKTN News that Truth Social was meant to be a “platform for my voice.” He added, “Truth is a platform for my voice and for my followers.”
“The key question raised by the launch of Truth Social is what impact can a social media platform have if its user base is, to some extent, politically homogenous?” Phil Napoli, professor of public policy at Duke, told Yahoo Finance earlier this year.
A single-note voice tends to close debate opportunities that might actually attract users, Napoli noted.
Truth Social reported in a filing last month with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has no paid advertisers. Its parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, is losing money and “expects to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future,” the filing said.
Truth Social came under fire last week when several user accounts were reportedly suspended after mentioning the House Select Committee’s dramatic television hearings investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising. Nunes called the user reports “fake news.” But several users posted screenshots of Truth Social suspending their accounts, which they claim happened immediately after the audiences were posted.
Many others have also been suspended, such as a user who was apparently booted for simply choosing the username “DevinNunesCow”.
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