Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he's 'the only person in America' equipped to challenge Big Tech 'censorship' - as shares in the company behind his new social media venture Truth Social tumbled for the second day.
He tore into 'wildly aggressive censorship' on existing social media platforms and decried 'cancel culture' as 'un-American.'
Through his new company, Trump Media & Technology Group, the ex-president made a lengthy statement outlining why he was launching a social media site, which he said was 'about saving our country.'
'The more I looked into this problem, the more I realized that to restore free speech, a major new platform would have to enter the market, with an ironclad commitment to protecting vigorous debate from all sides,' Trump said.
He added that any plan that's 'totally independent of Big Tech's infrastructure' would be costly and need to 'rapidly attract millions of users, welcoming not only Republicans to join, but Independents and Democrats as well.'
'It’s a tremendously difficult set of challenges—and I realized I might be the only person in America with the megaphone, the resources, the experience, and the desire to make it all happen,' he said.
'So with the same “can-do” spirit that has always allowed Americans to persevere, that is exactly what I am doing.'
Trump accused Big Tech leaders of acting as an 'oligarchy' and vowed to welcome people of all political affiliations to his new social media site
But his company may have hit some early financial struggle when the firm that plans to list it publicly saw its value drop more than 19 percent as of Tuesday afternoon
He railed against instances of alleged Big Tech censorship including his own removal off Facebook and Twitter at the hands of 'a small oligarchy of tech titans' as well as Twitter blocking the New York Post's report on Hunter Biden's laptop just weeks before Election Day.
'We’ve seen vital reporting about Joe and Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings—information that voters needed and deserved to hear—ruthlessly suppressed and erased from the internet just weeks before a presidential election. And as everyone knows, we’ve seen a sitting president of the United States effectively silenced by a small oligarchy of tech titans and “mainstream” media corporations,' Trump said.
Trump went even further and blamed 'cancel culture' for the numerous crises Joe Biden has seen under his presidency so far.
'Most obvious are the many catastrophes unfolding under the current administration: the calamitous Afghanistan withdrawal, the disaster at the Southern Border, runaway inflation, and the multi-trillion-dollar socialist spending nightmare, just to name a few,' he said.
Trump struck an unusually inclusive tone when he pledged his site would be home to 'people of all political stripes, and all different viewpoints, to come and participate once again in the great American debate' and that it would be 'as free, vibrant, lively and diverse as America itself.'
Trump's social media company Truth Social is set for a wide launch in early 2022
Trump Media & Technology Group, the launchpad for Truth Social, aims to also roll out a streaming service, web services and payment processing companies, according to the ex-president.
