Former US President Donald Trump, in October 2021, announced his plans to launch a revolutionary tech company. Trump claimed his plans will take shape smoothly and his app will be “fully operational” by the end of March. His app– “Social Truth” resembles Twitter. Trump was banned from Twitter in 2021 for posting false claims regarding the US elections. He was later also dismissed from Facebook and YouTube.
Social Truth is a calculative move on Trump’s part to replicate Twitter. But what progress has the app made so far?
The app launched on 21st February 2022. As soon as the app launched, it was reveled that there was a waiting list of 1.5 million users. On the day of the launch, Truth Social was one of the App Store’s most downloaded apps. Yet, the app is outside the Top 100 according to Similarweb. Truth Social is unavailable for android users, for web use and for most people outside the US. “I created Truth Social… to stand up to the tyranny of big tech,” claims Trump through a statement issued by TMTG in October 2021.
Several users have been joking about Trump’s app on twitter. “By the time I’m off the waiting list and on to Truth Social for real, Trump will be President again,”. Another Twitter user tweets, “#truthsocial is a failure? How could that happen?”, with a list of Trump’s previous failed businesses.
Rumble, a site replicating YouTube, was supposed to support Truth Social. It was claimed to act as a “critical backbone” for the site’s infrastructure. Amidst severe problems and complaints about the app, a Republican source close to Trump shares, “It should take a few days to fix, not six weeks,”. He adds, “There’s always going to be hiccups at the beginning – but at this point, I would have thought it would have been resolved.”
Many users still face trouble accessing the app. They are put on a wait list. Below the app, one review stated, ‘I have watched people who have had a higher number on the waiting list get in before me… You can’t refresh. It’s been a month and you can’t ask anyone what’s going on. So I will be removing it. It’s not worth sitting in my phone and collecting data for nothing,’. On the other hand people who got access to the app left positive remarks. The man behind Truth Social, Trump, himself has been absent from the platform. On 21 February, his ‘Get Ready! Your favorite President will see you soon!’, was his first and last post.
The app’s download page has now fallen to 90,000 visits on Apple’s App Store. Earlier, the app was reported to have 361,000 visits in its first week. Moreover, Trump is said to be furious over less engagement on his app.
