Integrity Score 2097
No Records Found
No Records Found
No Records Found
Ousted from social media that had helped his rise, Donald Trump has been attempting to develop a platform of his own. There was one earlier this year; it didn’t work. There’s another, and investors have queued up. But, with its one-point agenda and expectations of ‘alternative facts’, will it click?
His new company, Trump Media & Technology Group, aims to become a news and internet empire: https://thehill.com/homenews/media/577712-trump-announces-new-social-media-network-called-truth It claims to be the torchbearer for free speech and promises to allow everyone to post anything. “TRUTH Social is America’s ‘Big Tent’ social media platform that encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology,” it says. (But the ‘terms of use’ say it will ban any content that would “disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the Site.”)
Website:
https://www.truthsocial.com/
On App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/truth-social/id1586018825
Critics panned ‘Truth Social’ for lax security and rehashed features. What users post there is straightaway called ‘Truths’. If it’s re-tweeted, it becomes ‘Re-Truths’. A news feed is called the Truth Feed. It runs on a largely unmodified version of Mastodon, the open-source software: https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dgm5k/truth-social-is-mastodon-trump
With these rudimentary tools, Trump may not be able to teach the Big Tech a lesson. The first trouble came in no time when pranksters posted an image of a defecating pig to the ‘donaldjtrump’ account: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/21/trump-truth-social-fake-accounts/ The site had to go offline temporarily. The company said it was in the ‘beta testing’ mode, and full-fledged launch will be early next year.
Trump, out of the social-media world since the January 6 insurrection, wants to communicate and network with a large number of supporters and like-minded people. And limits of free speech come in the way of what liberals would allege to be plain misinformation and propaganda campaigns: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-organization-truth-social-branding/2021/10/21/23d9bfc4-328b-11ec-9241-aad8e48f01ff_story.html He is striving to keep his brand of one-sided communication relevant. But in launching his own venture he was forced to embrace the protection against third-party content that he himself had criticized earlier. He could hope for success if he appreciates the two sides of the social-media story.
Business model:
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-technology-business-media-social-media-bcd42b4a669557cbc074ba4aac53ca59
Copyright violations?
https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/22/22740354/trump-truth-social-network-spac-mastodon-license-software-freedom-conservancy
Opinion: Why it will fail
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/21/trump-social-media-political/
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/21/politics/donald-trump-social-media-truth/index.html