After the riots in the U.S. Congress, major social media blocked Trump one after another. Now the Internet celebrity president, who once called for wind and rain on the Internet, has plummeted like a “broken wing”.
In South America, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, known as “Tropical Trump”, has also begun to be afraid of mainstream social media such as Twitter and Facebook after seeing what happened to Trump, and is looking for a substitute for them. New social platform.
According to Bloomberg on January 13, Bossonaro has begun to urge fans who follow his account to “turn to” social platforms such as Telegram and Parler in recent days, and even his son changed his Twitter avatar to Trump to “support” the President of the United States.
Bolsonaro, the far-right Brazilian president, currently has more than 6.6 million followers on Twitter. On January 12th local time, he posted an article on his personal Twitter, introducing his official account on Telegram, an encrypted instant messaging software, and appealing to netizens to follow.
For a long time, Bolsonaro has admired Trump very much, calling him his “political role model”. Like Trump, Bolsonaro has achieved great success on his online platform, according to Bloomberg. For example, he will regularly broadcast live videos on Facebook and interact with fans.
In addition, Bolsonaro posted on Instagram on January 9th local time, inviting netizens who follow their accounts to join and use another right-wing social media software Parler. However, the current situation is that Parler was first removed from application stores on platforms such as Google and Apple, and then Amazon stopped providing hosting services for it. The software has been “off the shelves” from the Internet.
According to Sensor Tower, a mobile application business intelligence analysis agency, as of Monday (11th), Parler had only about 500,000 downloads in Brazil.
According to the report, Bolsonaro now encourages netizens to “shift social media positions”, which is a very important change, which echoes what has happened in the United States.
On the evening of January 8th, local time, Twitter permanently banned Trump’s personal account on the grounds that “tweets have a risk of inciting violence”, and several social media platforms followed suit. Moreover, a large number of right-wing conservatives’ related accounts have also been blocked by Twitter recently, leaving many Trump supporters to find another place.
Since then, a large number of Trump supporters have flocked to unfamiliar social platforms such as Parler and Telegram, regarding it as a brand-new “spiritual home”.
Like Telegram, a cross-platform instant messaging software, users can exchange encrypted and self-destruct messages with each other and send all types of files such as photos, movies, etc. It not only functions similar to software such as WhatsApp, but also allows one-on-one chat and group chat for competitors. It also allows public figures to set up “channels” to broadcast to followers. Up to 200,000 people can join public group chats.
Jen Goldbeck, a professor of information research at the University of Maryland, believes that Telegram may become a longer-term “home” for Trump loyal supporters than Parler, which is “allow”, because it is unlikely to be “offline”. Because of its reliability and ease of use, Telegram may be more attractive than other platforms favored by Trump supporters.
Bloomberg also mentioned that Brazilian Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the “controversial” son of Bolsonaro, recently even replaced his Twitter avatar with a photo of Trump in support of his social media suppression.
Eduardo also tweeted on January 12 local time: “Trump was prevented from making a voice. Parler is the victim, but this is not over. This platform (Twitter) has also blocked 70,000 accounts supporting President Trump.”
