Former President Donald J. Trump’s budding social media firm’s flagship app is Truth Social. The app’s newest tech advancements, which allowed a stream of consumers to join it, fueled the increased interest in Truth Social, which launched in February. At the same time, there’s more skepticism about Twitter. Some Twitter users deleted their accounts this week when it was revealed that Mr. Musk was looking for a new job, prompting speculation about how he would disrupt the network.
Truth Social has long positioned itself as a viable alternative to Twitter and Facebook, both of which notoriously banned Mr. Trump from their platforms following the melee on the US Capitol in January. The app promotes itself as an unfiltered platform that does not discriminate against users based on their political beliefs. It, as well as other similar applications like Rumble and Parler, adopt a hands-off approach to moderation in the hopes of allowing people to speak freely without being restricted.
Mr. Trump has stated that Truth Social will “fight up to the tyranny of Big Tech.” Mr. Musk, a self-described free speech absolutist, was taken aback by the app’s recent spike in popularity. In a series of tweets, the billionaire claimed that Truth Social was “beating Twitter & TikTok in the Apple Store” and blamed the alternative applications on Twitter’s speech policies.
Despite the fanfare, the app had a shaky launch. Many people who signed up for it when it was first published in February were met with a static screen showing a wait-list number, which the site blamed on “high demand.”
In general, there wasn’t enough activity on Truth Social to determine whether its content moderation practices differed from those of mainstream social media. Truth Social, like Twitter and Facebook, has terms of service that stipulate those criminal activities are not permitted.
