Donald Trump’s new social network, “Truth Social”, will gradually go online this week and should be “fully operational” by the end of March, more than a year after the former president was banned from large platforms.
“We will start opening the application to people on Apple this week,” said Devin Nunes, boss of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the parent company of the new social network, interviewed on Sunday on the Fox News channel. “I think that by the end of March we will be fully operational, at least in the United States,” added the former parliamentarian, who left Congress at the start of the year to lead TMTG.
“Expected for February 21”
“Truth Social” – truth means “truth” in English – was presented by Donald Trump as an alternative to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, from which he was banned after the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. He is accused of inciting his supporters to violence.
On Sunday, the app was marked “Expected February 21” on mobile app download stores. It already exists in a test version, used by supporters of the billionaire.
“It’s touching for me to see people who have had their voices muzzled using the platform,” said Devin Nunes, referring to the “cancel culture”, this idea according to which personalities find themselves erased from the public square. by popular opinion described as “well-meaning” by the right.
” Truth “
“We want them to tell us what content they want on the platform,” he added. “Unlike the crazed Silicon Valley oligarchs who tell people what they want them to think and decide who can or cannot be on the networks.”
February 21 is a holiday in the United States in honor of American presidents. Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump have also planned to sell 10,000 NFTs (authenticated digital objects) on this date illustrating key moments in the mandate of the former Republican head of state.
“THE TRUTH is coming…” tweeted Elise Stefanik, the number three elected Republican in the House of Representatives on Friday, in reference to the threatening formula of the TV series “Game of Thrones”, “Winter is coming…”. She posted a screenshot of her message on Truth Beta, the testing version of the social network: “I’m so happy to be on TRUTH! Thanks to president@realDonaldTrump for his leadership. Together, America’s first patriots will SAVE AMERICA, smash the tech giants and protect FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION! »
” Be ready ! »
“The time for truth has come,” tweeted Donald Trump Junior, the son of the former leader, on Tuesday, with a screenshot of a message from his father on the network: “Be prepared! Your favorite president will soon receive you”.
According to various press releases, the group has about 1.25 billion dollars to attack its competitors in the already very crowded market of social networks popular with ultra-conservatives, such as Gettr, launched in early July. by former Donald Trump adviser Jason Miller, but also Parler and Gab.
In December, TMTG announced that it had entered into a partnership with the Canadian video streaming platform Rumble, stating that the beta version had already been launched using their cloud service (remote computing).
Candidate or not?
At 75, Donald Trump leaves doubts about his intention to run again, or not, for the Republican nomination in the race for the White House.
He is under investigation over his handling of his taxes, how he allegedly tried to stay in power after his defeat in November 2020. His handling of official documents that should have been passed to the US National Archives is also called into question.
Before the deletion of his Twitter account, the social network was Donald Trump’s favorite platform, which he used in turn to make presidential announcements and to formulate attacks against his political enemies. He had nearly 89 million subscribers there, whom he spoke to every day.
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