Trump's campaign manager claims Twitter 'would be done' if president quit for another platform

Amid claims from Donald Trump that social media giants are unfairly suppressing conservative views, his 2020 campaign manager has threatened the president may quit Twitter for a conservative platform

“If @realDonaldTrump leaves @Twitter for another platform Twitter is done. Put a fork in it,” wrote Brad Parscale, who was Mr Trump’s digital media director for the 2016 presidential campaign and now serves as manager for his reelection campaign.

The comment came after Mr Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, joined his father in claiming there was anti-conservative bias on social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook. Senior officials from Twitter, Facebook and Google are expected to provide testimony next week on Capitol Hill.

Mr Trump Jr told Axios there was “exactly zero doubt in my mind” that tech bias is real. “I don't think [this issue] is going away, because I don't think it's changing,” he said

He said the companies needed to better self regulate as “many of these platforms get many benefits from the government”. He said if a Trump supporter in the tech world created a conservative, Facebook-like social network, he would urge his father’s supporters to switch to it.

The president has recently opened a fresh attack on tech companies, seeking to heap them in the “fake news” category of media groups he loves to hate.

“Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people. Can’t do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely. People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship,” he said in one tweet.

In another, he wrote: “Google search results for “Trump News” shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake News Media. In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal?”

Facebook in particular has for years been trying to deflect claims it is biased against conservatives, following claims it had hidden conservative content. The New York Times said it had in effect been accused of stifling conservative speech by many, including Mr Trump and Senator Ted Cruz.

The newspaper reported that recently a message posted on Facebook’s internal message board titled We Have a Problem With Political Diversity”, quickly went viral inside the company.

“We are a political monoculture that’s intolerant of different views,” Brian Amerige, a senior Facebook engineer, wrote in the post.

“We claim to welcome all perspectives, but are quick to attack — often in mobs — anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology.”