‘Time for Truth’: Inside Trump’s app Truth Social

After he was banned from social media giants Twitter and Facebook, and YouTube as well—for endorsing and inciting violence during the 2021 US Capitol attack that attempted to overturn the presidential election results—a distraught and defeated Donald Trump had decided to create an online platform where he would not be silenced.

Before his permanent ban from Twitter, Trump had tweeted almost sixty thousand times, and had a follower count of almost ninety million. The 75-year-old ex-president is hoping that his app, ironically named  ‘Truth Social’,  will help him regain his following and rally his supporters as he signals another presidential run for 2024.

Inspired by Twitter and Instagram, the app was created by Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and launched in Apple’s App Store on February 21. Almost immediately after its launch, the app topped the App Store chart of most downloaded apps, and was downloaded 170,000 times in two days according to research firm Apptopia.

At the moment, the app is only available to users in the US, and demand appears to be “massive”3—it has a waitlist that grew to approximately 500,000 in just two days, with a message displayed on the screen saying: "Due to massive demand, we have placed you on our waitlist. We love you, and you're not just another number to us. But your waitlist number is below."

Those in the waiting list are expected to gain access in the following week. Technical glitches were also reported, as people had trouble registering and signing in. 

“I think by the end of March we're going to be fully operational at least within the United States,” said Devin Nunes, a former Republican US Representative who resigned from Congress to become the CEO of TMTG, in an interview with Fox News.

If Truth Social is successful, Trump is looking at raking in millions of dollars. Interest in the app is still far from reaching his lost Twitter following, but RightForge—the global internet infrastructure company hosting the app—anticipates it will reach over 75 million users.

‘Dropping truth bombs’ - but to a clear target?

The app is a result of right-wing grievances against mainstream social media that accuse popular online platforms of intolerance towards conservatives, stirring up discussions about freedom of speech.

“Our main goal here is to give people their voice back," Nunes told Fox News.

"We want (customers) to tell us what they would like to have on the platform, which is the opposite of some Silicon Valley tech oligarch freak telling people what they want to think and deciding who can or cannot be on the platform," he added.

In its Community Guidelines, Truth Social defines itself as “America's "Big Tent" social media platform that encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology”.

However, those who have been able to sign into the app, which appears to have the same layout as Twitter, have found that the posts—called “truths”, much like tweets—seemed to align with Trump’s views. No surprise, given the nature of the app.

Users have reportedly seen posts aimed at humiliating and rebuking incumbent President Joe Biden, with one depicting him holding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and wearing a turban, captioned "Making the Taliban great again!" A euphemism adopted by Trump supporters to insult Biden, "Let's Go Brandon", was also a plentiful sight on the app.

Moreover, one user has already reported that he was banned from the app after he created a parody account with the handle @DevinNunesCow—named after the CEO Devin Nunes himself—raising questions about just how inclusive the app is.

"Truth Social allows the posting of 'not safe for work' and 'trolling' content," reads the Community Guidelines of the platform which requires users to be 18 and older. The app’s terms of service, on the other hand, state that user-generated content must not be "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, violent, harassing, libellous, slanderous, or otherwise objectionable"—but falls short of clarifying what would fall into those lines.

The discrepancy is apparent, with posts and accounts mocking Biden reportedly being tolerated, while a parody handle about the Republican CEO can get one banned.

Truth Social’s content moderation mechanisms are unclear as well, with the exception that Nunes had mentioned TMTG is in business with a startup called Hive to utilise artificial intelligence to monitor content on the app.

Considering that Trump himself has been struggling with several allegations of disinformation himself, how the app will fare in that field is an intriguing question.

The app’s current users include conservative lawmakers such as Elise Stefanik and Wendy Rogers, who are still supporting Trump. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who joined Trump in Twitter’s permanent ban club last month for spreading misinformation about Covid-19, is also on Truth Social.

Republicans have also utilised the app’s launch to fundraise for the election, declaring that Trump had made a comeback “After over A YEAR of muzzling by the Liberal Big Tech Tyrants,” in the words of GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Despite the fanfare, however, Trump’s presence on the app has been restricted to one “truth” that read  “Get Ready! Your favourite President will see you soon!" According to reports, the Monday after the app’s launch, Trump’s following was at a mere 12,000.

It is not yet clear how much the app might grow, what controversies are to come and whether or not the venture will be successful. But one thing already seems certain—Truth Social has a clear target audience, having emerged as a platform for right-leaning individuals.