Former President Trump has long hinted at starting his own media concern, and now apparently has the backing through a merger to do so according to an announcement made Wednesday. The new venture will comprise of Trump Media and Technology Group and TRUTH Social, a social media platform.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he will launch his own social media platform, TRUTH Social, according to a press release by Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG).
Trump’s new social network is set to launch a beta version in November, which will be available to invited guests only. Its national rollout is expected in the first quarter of 2022, the press release said.
Trump signaled his aspirations to create a rival social media platform after he was kicked off from several social media platforms. Earlier this year, major social media firms including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, banned or suspended Trump for violating their policies following the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol.
“I created TRUTH Social and TMTG to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech. We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced,” Trump said in the statement.
Trump said that the company’s mission is to create “a rival to the liberal media consortium and fight back against the Big Tech companies.”
TRUTH Social app will be launched through a new company formed by a merger of the Trump Media and Technology Group and Digital World Acquisition Corp, listed on the Nasdaq, as per its statement.
(By the way, marketing materials for TRUTH’s iOS app show a screenshot with a list of posts from publications including The New York Times, Variety, Fox News and TechCrunch. The headline displayed next to our logo has never appeared on this site and TechCrunch does not have an account on TRUTH.)
The hackers are apparently already having a field day with it.Report
Considering the ‘security’ that was on sites like Parler, I suspect they cracked it before they finished their first cup of covfefe.Report
Curious how he feels about regulating social media now.Report
I imagine he’s in the “Private companies should be free to do whatever they want” camp.Report
I’ll wager 100000 quatloos that his site heavily moderates comments and his fans will be all over a good hecklers veto.Report
Oh, yeah.
Just like anywhere.Report
I’ll make a side bet the site only gets a trickle of visitors, even by MAGAs.
The core of Trumpism is resentment and performative bullying and that’s just no fun when the bullied aren’t able to experience it.Report
That’s seems to be the thing with parler and gab and hate book or whatever they are on.Report
…currently…Report
This has to be a misprint in the quoted article. A beta version will be coming out. I’m sorry trump and fans are always Alpha in every situation. Nothing less.Report
It’s built on an open source platform and has 30 days to either get off it or become open source itself. Or simply ignore the licensing terms. Any bets?Report