With tweets fact-checked, Trump campaign turns to app

Video Credit: Reuters - Politics
Published on June 2, 2020 - Duration: 01:51s

With tweets fact-checked, Trump campaign turns to app

U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign has been building an alternative channel for him for months, a smartphone app that aims to become a one-stop news, information and entertainment platform for his supporters, in part because of concerns that the president would lose access to the Twitter platform, said his campaign manager, Brad Parscale.

This report produced by Yahaira Jacquez.


With tweets fact-checked, Trump campaign turns to app

With rallies canceled and Twitter fact-checking his Tweets, President Donald Trump's campaign has a backup plan to get his message out.

An app that aims to become a one-stop news, information and entertainment platform for his supporters.

Since launching in April, IT has often placed among the Top 10 in Apple's rankings of news apps.

Sometimes above those of individual news organizations such as CNN, the New York Times and Reuters.

For the president's supporters- it's where they can get campaign news and if they choose so, they can rely on the app as a primary, if heavily filtered, information source, one where Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic is championed and the economy is poised for a quick recovery.

While for the campaign, it's a substitute to Trump's rallies and a way to collect crucial voter data ahead of November's election.

Users can earn reward points by getting other people to sign up for the app.

The points can then be used to buy campaign gear or even score a meeting with Trump himself.

For months, the Trump campaign has been building the alternative channel - says his campaign manager, Brad Parscale - in part due to concerns that the president would lose access to Twitter.

Tensions between Trump and the messaging platform escalated last week after Twitter began to label some of his tweets with a fact-check.

President Trump: "To make it so that social media companies that engage in censoring or any political conduct will not be able to keep their liability shield." Trump responded with an executive order that threatens to curtail some legal protections enjoyed by social media companies.

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