OPINION: New politically charged social media is widening the rift between Dems. and Reps.

Photo via: T Media Tech LLC/Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

“Are you on Truth Social or Bluesky?”

I am a firm believer that many different things can contribute to someone’s political standing but I never thought it would be a social media platform. Is that what social media has come to? In the future, will we have to pick which social platform to use based on our political standing? 

The unveiling of the new social media platform, Bluesky, has raised many questions about its purpose. As X (formerly Twitter) users flock to it, it’s impossible not to note the demographic of users, most of whom are Democrats. This is not to say that Bluesky is entirely for Democrats, but an influx of this demographic has taken to other social media platforms to announce their move and relish in the absence of Elon Musk and AI.

This brings another platform to mind that caters to a political demographic: Truth Social. Truth Social was launched in early 2022 by Trump Media & Technology Group, owned by President-elect Donald Trump. It followed Trump’s banishment from X, owned by Elon Musk. 

But what’s the deal with these politically centered social media apps? 

To start, I made an account on both platforms, noting the first difference. When first loading each website, I could immediately access content on Bluesky without an account. It was immediately ready for me to scroll and explore to my heart’s content. Truth Social, however, was a bit more closed off. I had to create an account to access any of the content on Truth Social, minus the scrolling animation of posts on the login page. 

Upon creating an account on each platform, each one prompted me to follow a few groups. If you didn’t know, Bluesky was started as an inside project by former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey. Naturally, Bluesky follows many of the new account procedures as Twitter did. You could follow vague topics to curate your dashboard. To understand the political undertone of the app, I picked “Politics” as one of my groups. Then, I chose “Journalism” just for the sake of it. Lastly, I picked “Comedy” to get an aspect of the platform’s non-political side. As I scrolled through, there seemed to be somewhat of a balance between political speech and other topics. 

Again, I saw a difference in Truth Social. When prompted to follow groups, it looked a lot more like what a Facebook group looks like. They were more personal and tailored to the niches of the United States. There were groups for many different things: a group for each U.S. state, a group entitled “Artists of Truth Social,” “Patriot Made” and many more, both public and private. It seemed these groups were more specific. I joined three groups: “Patriot Made,” “Artists of Truth Social” and “Anything but Politics.” Upon scrolling through each group for a while, I found, particularly in “Anything but Politics,” that politics were everywhere. People were constantly posting something to do with politics, and Trump was constantly being tagged and replied to everywhere. 

This kind of sectionalism within social media will hurt the two parties in the long run. The longer we allow political conversations to be held only with members of its party, the more propaganda and misinformation will spread. While not marketed as aligning solely with a specific party, the apps are universally known to be aligned with a particular party. I think that as the misinformation and propaganda breeds, it will only pull the two parties further apart as we go into Trump’s presidency. 

On the other hand, I see the need for two different platforms. One user on Bluesky, @mattxiv.bsky.social, posted that “it’s cool to be able to scroll more than six posts without wanting to k!ll myself,” alluding to the “transphobic coke rants” he usually sees on X. A user on Truth Social, who is new to the platform, talks about the solace that Truth Social provides. The “truth” (what posts on Truth Social are called) says, “...I am brand new to the social media platforms. I downloaded Truth and X after the election more out of curiosity than anything else. I was surprised by what is truly the free exchange of opinions and ideas, which I believe is foundational to our great country.” The user then goes on to talk about the election. Creating these spaces where people feel safe can be crucial in moderation, but I also think that’s what groups are for on X.

The following images are screenshots from Olliver.