What is Truth Social, Donald Trump’s social media platform?
SAN FRANCISCO — Former President Donald Trump launched his social media platform, Truth Social, in early 2022, after he was banned from major sites such as Facebook and the platform formerly known as Twitter following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
While he's since been reinstated to both, he's mostly stayed off X, the Elon Musk-owned platform that was once his primary megaphone. On Facebook, meanwhile, his posts are largely videos and images with slogans and messages like “THANK YOU, MISSOURI! Together, WE are going to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
That's unlikely to change even as the Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs Truth Social, will start trading on the NASDAQ stock market soon. A shareholder vote Friday approved a deal to merge it with Digital World Acquisition Corp. — a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, also referred to as a blank check company.
Here are some things to know about Trump's social media platform and where it fits into the broader social media landscape.
What is Truth Social?
Before Truth Social, there was a short-lived blog on Trump's personal website called “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump.” But it didn't last long, and Trump's camp was already hinting that the former president had a social media platform in the works.
Truth Social launched in the Apple App store in February 2022. It was a glitchy start, but it shot to the top of Apple's list of most downloaded free apps. While the platform sought to capitalize on the
outrage over Trump's social media bans to attract a broad audience, Truth Social, much like fellow right-leaning social media platforms Gettr and Parler, has not been able to move much beyond an echo chamber of conservative political commentary — if they are able to stay online in the first place.
“It is marketed in opposition to mainstream media apps, which Trump and his supporters allege discriminate against their views and limit free expression.
Its content and audience are overwhelmingly conservative and made up of the MAGA base,” said Roxana Muenster, a doctoral student at Cornell University who studies the far-right and digital communication. “There is also a lot of hate speech and extremism on the platform due to their lax approach to content moderation.”
How big is it?
The company behind Truth Social doesn't dis