NEW YORK, July 17 (Reuters) – The head of engineering at the company behind former U.S. President Donald Trump’s app Truth Social told Reuters on Monday that he has resigned.
Alex Gleason’s resignation comes amid lingering uncertainty for Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). TMTG launched Truth Social as a way for Trump to connect with his base after being cut off from major social media platforms following the January 6 presidential election. In 2021, his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Gleason is the founder of Soapbox Technology, which provides open source technology for “decentralized” social media platforms that run on independently run servers and provide an alternative to Twitter and Facebook.
Gleason said in an interview that he is leaving TMTG to work full time on Soapbox, which develops technology to connect multiple decentralized platforms.
TMTG hired Gleason in January 2022 to tailor Soapbox’s technology to its needs, ultimately turning it into the Truth Social app’s front-end technology (what users see and interact with). I used it as.
Representatives for TMTG did not respond to requests for comment on Gleason’s departure.
Truth Social has struggled with significant user growth since its launch in February 2022.
Although Trump has since returned to more widely used platforms from which he was banished, including Facebook and Twitter, Truth Social’s user base has grown significantly, TMTG told investors in November 2021. It remains small compared to growth targets. The number of users of the app is expected to reach 56 million by 2024 and 81 million by 2026.
Truth Social has an estimated 607,000 monthly users, according to Samelweb data.
Trump had 5.71 million followers on Truth Social as of July 17, compared to more than 88 million followers on Twitter at the time the platform suspended him.
In October 2021, TMTG announced an agreement to merge with blank check company Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) (DWAC.O) and go public, but this was subject to investigation by the Department of Justice and U.S. securities regulators. The merger is in doubt because of delays. Its closing.
A filing earlier this month indicated that DWAC had reached an agreement with Securities and Exchange Commission staff, but the agreement is not yet final and terms are subject to SEC approval.
Reporting by Helen Coster; Editing by Deepa Babington
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