WASHINGTON: Jason Miller, a top adviser to former US President Donald Trump, launched a social media site on Sunday that was momentarily hacked, but more than 500,000 people have registered to use it, according to Miller. GETTR, a Twitter-style platform with posts and trending topics, bills itself as “a non-bias social network for individuals all over the world” via the Google and Apple app stores.
In an emailed response to Reuters, Miller said, “The problem was found and shut in a couple of minutes, and all the intruder was able to do was change a few user names.”
On Twitter, a contributor for Salon updated many GETTR accounts, including those of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Miller himself, to read “JubaBaghdad was here, follow me in twitter :).”
When asked about the new social media’s security, Miller indicated the matter had been “corrected.”
Miller had touted the Trump campaign’s plans to launch a new social media platform for months, following Twitter and other companies’ attempts to block the former president when his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
In a post on the new site on Sunday, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon called GETTR “the Twitter killer.”
Trump has been permanently banned from Twitter, and his Facebook account has been stopped until at least 2023, as well as YouTube, owned by Alphabet, until the firm believes the risk of violence has lessened.
Miller told Fox News earlier this week that he hoped Trump would join, but that he was weighing other choices. Trump, he claimed, would not bankroll the platform. (Andrea Shalal contributed reporting, and Marguerita Choy edited the piece.)/n
