Trump’s ‘Non-Woke’ Twitter Alternative Plans To Launch February 21

Topline

Trump Media and Technology Group, former President Donald Trump’s new company, indicated Thursday it’s planning to launch a social media platform February 21, more than a year after Trump was banned from Facebook and Twitter.

Developer Screenshots for Truth Social, Donald Trump’s forthcoming social media platform.

tmtg/apple app store

Key Facts

A February 21 release date is displayed on an Apple App Store listing for the platform, known as Truth Social (Reuters was first to report the release date).

Developers described a suite of features similar to those offered by Twitter: The ability to like and share text-based posts, exchange private messages and scroll a “Truth Feed.”

In the platform’s App Store listing, developers claimed that Truth Social will be inclusive toward all ideologies, providing a place where liberals, conservatives and libertarians can have an “amazing time” together in spite of their differing opinions.

Surprising Fact

In November, Truth Social apparently missed a self-imposed deadline to launch invitation-only beta testing of the platform, CNBC reported.

Key Background

Trump was permanently banned from Twitter two days after the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, in connection to his tweets about the 2020 presidential election and the inauguration of President Joe Biden. Trump later decried the decision as an expression of “wildly aggressive censorship and ‘cancel-culture,’” and predicted that users would desert Twitter for other platforms. In October, he unveiled Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), which plans to go public by merging with blank-check company Digital World Acquisition Corp., and is aiming to launch a conservative-friendly social media app and a “non-woke” subscription service offering news and entertainment content in the form of video and podcasts. On Tuesday, Republican Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), a Trump ally, resigned from Congress to helm the company. DWAC’s share price leaped nearly 400% one day after the merger announcement, with trading halted multiple times due to volatility, and shares closed at a high of $94.20 a day later, though the price has dropped since then and closed at $60.27 on Thursday. Trump’s company also said last month it raised $1 billion from unnamed institutional investors, part of a private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction.

Tangent

In December, regulators from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority opened inquiries into the planned TMTG-DWAC merger, DWAC disclosed in a filing last month.

What To Watch For

One poll suggested that over 60% of Republicans planned to use Truth Social. However, Twitter alternatives like Parler struggle to match the influence of Twitter.