How Trump's zombie Facebook page became a weird internet memorial

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Shane Goldmacher
@ShaneGoldmacher
This is one of those stories so good that I'm jealous I didn't think of it.

Trump's dead Facebook page as a makeshift and living memorial. Great find from @_B_Contreras_:
The Facebook page of Donald Trump, the former president, is seen on a computer display on Apr. 22, 2021.
How Trump's zombie Facebook page became a weird internet memorial
Frozen in time since the Jan. 6 insurrection, perhaps forever, Donald Trump's Facebook page lives on as an internet destination for #MAGA fans and #Resistance types alike.
latimes.com
11:22 AM · Apr 23, 2021

https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2021-04-23/donald-trump-facebook-page-banned-becomes-internet-memorial

At first glance, Donald Trump’s Facebook page seems like it’s been dead for months.

The former president’s last post is dated 3:14 p.m. Jan. 6, 2021, the afternoon of the Capitol riots, as he called for “everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful.” Not long after he published that, Facebook — and many other social networks — banned him indefinitely for inciting the riots, instantly turning the account into a time capsule of those final, chaotic days before his presidency ended.

But that’s not the whole story. Because like a whale carcass that sinks to the ocean floor, entire ecosystems popping up in the shadow of its slowly decomposing husk, the comments field below that last post is now a vibrant feeding ground where Trump’s fans and critics still converge, months later, to argue, troll and pay homage.

“I don’t know if you see any of these comments, but I wanted to let you know that We the People, miss you and love you Mr. President,” Cyndi Lane commented April 14 — 98 days after Trump wrote the post to which she was replying. “Hurry back or shall I say, hurry up 2024!”

Lane, 54, is a Missouri wedding coordinator and bridal stylist who’s been voting Republican since the Reagan years. She knew Facebook banned Trump, she told The Times, but left her comment anyway after a news story prompted her to check back in on the account.

“I had been hopeful that maybe somebody that he knows or works with shows him … that we miss him,” she said. “I almost get tearful thinking about it. I feel like our country is in a mess, and I don’t see it getting any better.”

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