Truth Social

“FORMER President Trump has been attempting to get back on social media since his permanent ban from Twitter. Trump, who argued with big tech over his ban, decided to take matters into his own hands and launch his own social platform - that is being positioned as an alternative to Twitter and Facebook.” Trump’s Truth Social “will be a platform that "encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology." “In a statement about his new venture, Trump said: "I created TRUTH Social and TMTG to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech. Everyone asks me why doesn’t someone stand up to Big Tech? Well, we will be, soon.” “We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American president has been silenced. This is unacceptable," said Trump. - “The company will be registered under Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG)” and “the statement lists him as the Chairman.” “Truth Social is the first project to be announced by TMTG. This new company also plans to launch a subscription-based video-on-demand service that will offer what it calls "non-woke" content, including podcasts and news programming. Trump has claimed that the platform will present a real alternative to the social networks that banned him.” “It's another social media platform designed to fight against a perceived "woke culture" and less about content moderation or accessibility.” “Similar platforms have popped up over the years in an attempt to attract the attention of alt-right, far-right, extremist, and fringe groups. These spaces—such as Gab, Parler and Telegram—have courted the right to varying degrees of success and failure, as hate speech proliferated.” - “We will not silence our fellow citizens simply because they might be wrong—or worse, because we think that Americans ‘can’t handle the truth,’” Trump said. “Notably, though, the site's terms of service says your account can be suspended if you make fun of the platform.” “Truth Social bears more than a passing resemblance to Twitter, but that's not just because Twitter was Trump's platform of choice. Truth Social was created using an open-source license from Mastodon, which itself was initially created as an alternative to Twitter.” “After a test version of Truth Social was released in October 2021, it was determined that Truth Social simply used a recolored version of Mastodon's 3.0 theme. Most of the service's functionality is identical to Twitter. Instead of Likes, they are called Truths; instead of retweets, they are Re-Truths. The news feed is called the Truth feed, and so on.” “Truth Social will no doubt be courting the people who use these rival platforms, as well as those who once followed Trump on Twitter and Facebook.” “Why Was Donald J. Trump Banned from Twitter and Facebook? After polling day last Nov., Trump used his social media accounts to make baseless allegations that the presidential election had been tainted by fraud” with “his BIG lie” “that the election was stolen from him.” “He repeatedly claimed that the election had been "stolen" from him online and in a speech to a rally in Washington, D.C. on January 6. Hundreds of his supporters stormed the Capitol later that day and five people died in the violence” or as a result of the violence they were involved in. “Some of those charged in connection with the riot have said they were incited by Trump.” “On January 8, he was permanently blocked from Twitter "due to the risk of further incitement of violence." “He was also permanently banned from Snapchat and indefinitely suspended from Instagram, YouTube, Twitch and Facebook, the last of which will keep his profile deactivated for at least two years. In July, the former president announced his intention to file a class-action lawsuit against the CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter, on the grounds of censorship.” “Truth Social is not the first platform positioning itself as a "free speech" home for conservatives disenchanted with—or banned from—the mainstream social networks. Parler and Gab have tried to tap the same market, but with mixed results.” “It may be instructive to look to other, similarly positioned far-right social media platforms. The Southern Poverty Law center says that Gab is "known for hosting white supremacist content." The BBC said of Parler: "It is the home of many posts that would either be flagged as misleading or removed by major platforms—on topics like the election, COVID-19, child trafficking, and vaccines." And “Gab was hacked and the attacker leaked 70GB of user data” and “Parler had a major security vulnerability that allowed hackers to download and distribute nearly all of its publicly available content.” “And a hacker previously gained access to the Truth Social website, causing others to join the service prematurely and wreak all kinds of havoc.” “Hackers gained access to a private version of former President Trump’s recently announced social media platform and posted images of defecating pigs, expletives and more.” “The hackers, affiliated with the hacking collective Anonymous, told The NY Times that the move was part of their “online war against hate.” Using a false account dubbed “donaldjtrump,” the hackers posted the photos of the pigs, wrote profane rants against Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and made a fake account for former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.” “The hackers also posted memes from fake accounts for Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence and others.” “The group picked up clues after the site, named Truth Social, made its app available for preorder on Apple’s App Store earlier this week. Users were able to join a waiting list for its release, and hackers claimed these pieces provided enough information to access a version of the platform. The hackers gained access just hours after Truth Social was announced.” “The app later barred new accounts and was pulled offline according to multiple reports.” “The app (“a shameless Twitter clone”) is available for download on the Apple App Store and sits at the top of Apple’s download charts as of publication on Wednesday. But despite all of this excitement, Truth Social remains totally unusable. Hours after the app’s Presidents’ Day launch, it suffered dozens of technical glitches, from a 13-hour outage to users who were unable to make an account, let alone receive the confirmation email that allows them to start the process of joining. Even if you were able to secure a username, it’s likely you’ve been placed on an over 300,000 person waitlist to even start posting your “truths” — Trump language for “tweets.” (“Devin Nunes, former House member and head of TMTG, told Fox News on Sunday that the app wouldn’t be “fully operational” until the end of March.”)