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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Arwa Mahdawi

Twitter’s rightwing takeover is complete. Why are liberals still on it?

phone screen shows elon musk tweet about DeSantis event
Ron DeSantis’s decision to announce his presidential run in a Twitter audio event last month was one major marker of this shift. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images

It looks like they’ve finally done it. For years, the far right has repeatedly tried and failed to set up a social network of their own – one where they can spread conspiracy theories and sow hate without any of the pesky content moderation that happens on the big tech platforms.

Numerous sites including MeWe, Parler, Gab, Gettr and Trump’s own Truth Social have popped up but none of them have really gained any traction. Indeed Parler, the self-described “uncancelable free-speech social platform” Kanye West tried to buy last year, shut down in April. “No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more,” Parler’s parent company said in a statement.

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