Topline
Donald Trump’s new social media platform, Truth Social, launched on Apple’s App Store early Monday, setting up a return to social media for the former president who was banned from all mainstream online platforms last year after being accused of inciting his supporters to engage in violence during the January 6 Capitol Riots.
Truth Social launched on the Apple App Store late on Sunday night.
Key Facts
The first public release Truth Social went live on the iPhone App Store late Sunday night, describing itself as a social media platform that is “free from political discrimination.”
People who downloaded the app complained that they were seeing error messages when trying to create their accounts.
Forbes was able to confirm that several other users received a message that their account was successfully created, but they have been placed on a waitlist “due to massive demand.”
Based on the images of its user interface displayed on the App Store, Truth Social’s design closely mimics that of Twitter, the platform that was most extensively used by the former president.
What We Don’t Know
It’s unclear if signup issues encountered by early users of the app have anything to do with the purported delay in the full-fledged launch of the platform until March. Last week, the New York Times reported that a full rollout of the platform may be pushed back to March as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that is set to merge with Truth Social’s parent, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), and take it public.
Key Background
Last year, Trump was permanently banned from Twitter and every other major social media platform, days after the Capitol riots. Trump immediately decried this decision and accused large tech companies of “censorship and cancel culture” and predicted that his followers would soon desert their platforms in droves. In the wake of the ban, several right-wing alternative platforms like Gettr, Parler, Gab and Rumble tried to present themselves as free from censorship but the former president never officially joined them. In October, Trump finally announced plans to launch Truth Social and its parent company TMTG, which plans to go public by merging with blank-check company Digital World Acquisition Corp.
Further Reading
Trump’s Truth Social Is Poised to Join a Crowded Field (New York Times)
Trump’s Truth Social Debuts in Apple’s App Store (CNET)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/02/21/donald-trumps-twitter-alternative-truth-social-launches-on-apple-app-store/