But Nathaniel Persily, a professor at Stanford Law School, said the notion that Truth Social could be an uncensored social network was ultimately far-fetched. In reality, social networking sites are not truly the internet’s public squares, he said; they are commercial products that are required to obey the law, with communities of users who need to feel safe.

“A platform with no rules quickly descends into child pornography and Nazism,” he said.