May 21, 2019

Ceasefire App Looks To Bridge Hostile, Polarized Political Divide

John Scott Lewinski

Forbes: "A new social media app looks to remove the vitriol and the intolerance from modern political discussions on vital issues by disallowing personal attacks and other forms of stifling hostility. Its creators hope the app’s arrival on the scene will bring people together in the midst of potentially violent political conflicts.

The new mobile app calls itself Ceasefire and grew from a subreddit founded in 2013 by Kal Turnbull called Change My View. The discussion venue welcomed political discussion and persuasive debate, while abandoning the polarized narcissistic attacks and “points scoring” that’s so engrained in today’s political discourse. That board grew to more than 1 million subscribers and showed signs of outgrowing the Reddit platform.

It would seem the timing couldn’t be better for an app encouraging more productive, supportive political debate. In just the last two weeks, Americans took to the streets first to protest both the imposition of COVID-19 restrictions and the risks of people rating their freedom over viral protections.

Then, the death of George Floyd sent protesters to the streets to decry the act of police violence and other racial issues. Finally, President Donald Trump found himself in disputes on multiple fronts after controversies erupted with Twitter and the mayor of Washington, D.C."