Donald Trump is celebrating his comeback on social media with his own platform. Since shortly before midnight in the USA on Sunday, the app called Truth Social can be downloaded from Apple. For the former US President, Truth Social is a way to be heard more publicly. After the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the world’s largest platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube expelled the Republican.
The interest in Truth Social was obviously great. Some users who wanted to register for an account were initially put on a waiting list with reference to the high demand. Some had already been able to use the app in a test phase. The messages that Trump and others will post on the platform should not be called tweets like on Twitter, but truths – “truths”.
So far, alternative platforms, which include Gettr, Parler, and Rumble in addition to Truth Social, have failed to garner a large following. What the providers have in common is that they present themselves as advocates of free speech and thus want to attract users who have a hard time with the big tech giants in the face of increased crackdowns on hate speech and misinformation.
Behind Truth Social is the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), led by former US Congressman Devin Nunes. The company raised about $1 billion from private investors in December and plans to go public.
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