GETTR, the new so-called free speech social media app launched by a senior adviser to Donald Trump, has become a hotbed for Islamic terrorism, according to Politico.
This isn't the first problem for the Twitter-like platform, created by Jason Miller. It was briefly hacked soon after it was launched last month and flooded with anime porn and pictures of old men in underpants.
And now terrorist propaganda from Islamic State (IS) supporters is prevalent on the platform, including "graphic videos of beheadings, viral memes that promote violence against the West and even memes of a militant executing Trump in an orange jumpsuit similar to those used in Guantanamo Bay", reports Politico.
The app was set up after several right-wing figures like reality TV star Trump were booted off mainstream social media platforms for breaking their rules. GETTR has a mission of "fighting cancel culture, promoting common sense, defending free speech, challenging social media monopolies, and creating a true marketplace of ideas."
And it's that dedication to free speech that seems to have attracted the pro-IS content.
Moustafa Ayad, who works at online extremism think tank the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, says IS was very quick to exploit GETTR.
"On Facebook, there was on one of these accounts that I follow that is known to be IS, which said 'Oh, Trump announced his new platform. Inshallah, all the mujahideen will exploit that platform'," he told Politico.
"The next day, there were at least 15 accounts on GETTR that were IS."
Miller, in a statement on the platform, said the only IS members "still alive are keyboard warriors hiding in caves and eating dirt cookies".
"IS is trying to attack the MAGA moment because President Trump wiped them off the face of the earth, destroying the Caliphate in less than 18 months," he wrote.
But the posts seem to be a test to see if extremism content can bypass GETTR's content moderation, according to experts. A system, Miller says, that is "robust and proactive that removes prohibited content".
Unfortunately that doesn't appear to be true with many of the IS-linked accounts and videos still active days after Politico submitted requests for comment.
