ABSTRACT
After the removal of Donald Trump and other prominent Right-wing actors from social platforms, U.S. Republicans have alleged corporate social media of “liberal bias.” They charge that mainstream platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube working in tandem with Democrats have conspired to deny Republicans a chance to articulate their views. To better understand the nature of these accusations and meanings for the future of political (and journalistic) communication, this chapter explores the dominant criticisms made by conservatives against corporate social media through a thematic analysis of social media-related articles that appeared in two leading Right-wing media portals, https://Foxnews.com" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Foxnews.com and https://Newsmax.com" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Newsmax.com. This analysis reveals that conservatives adopted various discursive strategies to undermine the credibility of corporate social media. Such strategies include: a) the accusation of corporate social platforms pursuing an anti-conservative agenda, b) highlighting the need for a regulation of Silicon-Valley based tech companies, and c) emphasizing the need to embrace alternative social media like Gab, MeWe, BitChute, Parler, etc., to counter the popular social platforms. These alternative platforms collectively form what I describe as “Counter-net,” a discursive alternative to corporate social media. The implications of such partisan social media for the future of online communication, public discourse, and democracy are discussed.
