Donald Trump Jr has said the new social media network which his father plans to launch will be a platform for people to "assert your First Amendment rights."
Trump Jr waxed lyrical on Fox News about the ambitions of Truth Social, which had been announced by his father on Wednesday as a response to social media companies that have largely banned him after the deadly January 6 U.S. Capitol riot.
"You saw what they did to the president of the United States," Trump Jr told Fox News, referring to his removal from Twitter and Facebook, "we want to make sure that Americans have a voice.
BREAKING: @DonaldJTrumpJr on the announcement of https://t.co/I4K8Tz54NM
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) October 21, 2021
Truth Social is “a Big Tent, an open and Free Network for people to be able to communicate, to exercise your First Amendment rights.” pic.twitter.com/Kbq8fdmeN0
"We are going to cancel cancel culture, we are going to stand up and push back against the tyranny of big tech."
Trump Jr told anchor Sean Hannity that beta testing would be carried out in the coming weeks and appealed to people to get involved with it ahead of a "a full launch" in the first quarter of 2022.
"It's going to be exciting and we are looking to give a voice back to the American people," Trump Jr said.
"What we are trying to do is create a big tent, an open and free network for people to be able to assert your First Amendment rights," he added.
He said the ambition was to "return a voice back to those who need it and want it" adding that it was aimed at "conservatives everywhere."
Despite Trump and his son's claims, conservative voices do well on traditional social media platforms. On Wednesday, half of Facebook's 10 top performing link posts were from conservative media, commentators or politicians, according to the New York Times.
Twitter permanently banned ex-president Trump on January 8 over the risk of his inciting violence after repeatedly using his account to allege widespread fraud in the 2020 elections.
His allegations were cited as motivating those who took part in the January 6 insurrection.
Donald Trump is also permanently banned from Snapchat and has been indefinitely suspended from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch. Since then, the former president has long spoken about launching his own social media site.
On Wednesday, Donald Trump said his goal in launching the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and its "TRUTH Social" app was to take on big tech companies.
TMTG has also said it is also planning a video-on-demand service dubbed TMTG+ with entertainment programming, news and podcasts, the Associated Press reported.
Newsweek has contacted Donald Trump for comment.
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Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. His focus is Russia and Ukraine, in particular ... Read more
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