The alternative social media network GETTR is evolving to become more of an “everything app” with an emphasis on protecting free speech, according to its new CEO.

GETTR recently swapped CEOs when founder Jason Miller left the company to rejoin former President Donald Trump’s 2024 election team. In his wake, Miller left his former chief technological officer, Ken Huang, as CEO. While GETTR launched as a free speech-oriented clone of Twitter, Huang intends to evolve the app into something larger that offers many functions, from financial transactions to private groups.

“We definitely want to be the one true stop online and advocate for freedom of speech. And GETTR is more like a social media/financial tech platform,” Huang told the Washington Examiner.

While Huang intended to follow Miller’s vision of allowing all legal free speech on GETTR, he’s trying to also expand to a broader audience. This includes incentivizing users to come onto the platform for nonpolitical content since much of the platform’s content creators are political. This consists of the “Chill Mode” feature, which GETTR describes as the ability for users to restrict whether they are presented with political content.

We are representing ourselves to be a true marketplace of ideas and communication as well as commerce,” Huang said. “And honestly, we are turning ourselves to be more technology-focused as well.”

Huang took over the company in February after Miller stepped down. The former CTO has served at the company since its origins and has more than 25 years of working in information technology.

Huang also noted that GETTR was incorporating encrypted direct messages to protect user data. This feature has been highly requested on other social platforms. Twitter owner Elon Musk has said he is “aiming” to roll out encrypted direct messages.

Huang’s plans echo Musk’s, who proposed converting Twitter into an “everything app” similar to China’s WeChat. He mentioned plans to create separate communities for users, incentivizing content creators and paying them, and providing tools for doing business.

Former Trump team associate Miller founded GETTR in June 2021 as an alternative platform in response to the widespread banning of Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and the removal of Parler from both the Apple and Android app stores. The platform saw an early surge but struggled in 2022 to maintain growth, although the joining of celebrities such as Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson sent a wave of users to the platform.

News Source: WASHINGTON EXAMINER