SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Former President Donald Trump launched a social media platform, Truth Social, in early 2022 after taking office. Access prohibited from major sites Facebook and The platform formerly known as Twitter In response to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.
He has since returned to both, he has mostly moved away from X, the Elon Musk-owned platform that was once his main megaphone. Meanwhile, on Facebook, his posts are mostly videos and images with slogans or messages like “Thank you, Missouri!” Together, we are going to make America great again!!!”
The Trump Media & Technology Group is unlikely to change that. Start trading on Nasdaq stock market.
Here’s some things to know about President Trump’s social media platforms and where they fit into the broader social media landscape.
What is true social?
Before Truth Social, Trump had a short-lived blog on his personal website called “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump.” But that didn’t last long, with the Trump campaign already hinting that the former president was developing a social media platform.
society of truth Released on Apple App Store Released in February 2022. After a rough start, it shot to the top of Apple’s list of most downloaded free apps. While the platform sought to capitalize on anger over President Trump’s social media ban to attract a broader audience, Truth Social, like fellow right-wing social media platforms Gettr and Parler, was unable to move far beyond the echo chamber of conservative politics. Not yet.Explanation – if possible stay online in the first place.
“It is being marketed against mainstream media apps that Mr. Trump and his supporters claim discriminate against their views and restrict freedom of expression. conservative and MAGA-based,” said Roxana Munster, a doctoral student at Cornell University who studies the far right and digital communications. “There is also a lot of hate speech and extremism on the platform because of their lax approach to content moderation.”
how big is it?
The company behind Truth Social does not disclose the number of users. As stated in a regulatory filing, “Since its inception, TMTG has focused on increasing the value of its products rather than relying on traditional performance metrics such as average revenue per user, ad impressions and pricing, and active user accounts. We have focused on developing Truth Social by enhancing its functionality and user interface, including monthly and daily active users.
Despite this, research firm SimilarWeb estimates that Truth Social had approximately 5 million monthly visits in February of this year. In comparison, for example, TikTok has more than 2 billion monthly active users and Facebook has more than 3 billion monthly active users, according to Meta’s own report. But the site is faring better than rivals in the so-called “alternative” space, such as Parler, which just returned to Apple’s app store this week. After being offline for over a yearor Gettr, had less than 2 million visitors in February.
Trump has fewer than 7 million followers on his own platform, far fewer people than X, which has 87 million followers.
“Truth Social is unlikely to rival mainstream social media platforms any time soon. For many users, it’s Trump that draws them to Truth Social. For even more, it’s what turns them off. ” Munster said. “But more importantly, it’s hard to match X because of the way platforms work. Social networks enjoy economies of scale: the more users on a platform, the more This is called a network effect.”
Digital World itself points out that it needs to grow its user base to be successful. The company listed a number of risks facing TMTG in a U.S. regulatory filing. Chief among them is the need to expand the platform’s user base.
“For TMTG to be successful, we need millions of people to register and use our platform on a regular basis,” the company wrote. “If President Trump’s popularity declines or new controversies emerge that undermine President Trump’s credibility or people’s desire to use platforms associated with President Trump, or if President Trump derives financial benefit from them, TMTG’s business results may be adversely affected.”
How does it work?
Truth Social looks and feels similar to X. Users have profiles and can follow each other, post “truths” or “re-truths” and send direct messages. The ads are called “Sponsored Truth.”
To sign up, Truth Social asks for your email address and phone number. Users must consent to receive text messages from you before completing the sign-up process. This is unusual for social media companies trying to attract as many people as possible, as it may turn away some potential users. Also, unlike mainstream social media companies that allow teenagers to register, Truth Social requires users to be at least 18 years old, but does not perform age verification.
Truth Social’s feed is very similar to X, with a purple color scheme, a “for you” section of recommended posts, and a feed of accounts the user follows. It’s filled with conservative political posts, voices supporting Trump and criticizing immigrants and President Joe Biden.
As part of the agreement, which runs through February 2025, President Trump agreed to wait six hours after posting on Truth Social before posting “nonpolitical communications” on other social media platforms.
But this is at the former president’s sole discretion, and as the company points out in a regulatory filing, “most or all of presidential candidate Trump’s social media posts were may be considered to be related to.”
How does it compare to other platforms?
New social media apps targeting conservative users, such as Truth Social, Parler, and Gab, have nowhere near the success of Facebook and X. One reason is that Republican politicians and causes already have large audiences on existing, more established platforms. There is little reason to move to a new service.
According to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey (the most recent available), 27% of Americans have heard of Truth Social, while fewer people use it to get their news. It was only 2%. Still, the site fared better than competing conservative-leaning apps. It was second only to Parler, which was temporarily taken offline following the Jan. 6 attack.
Truth Social says it encourages “open, free and honest global conversation without discrimination based on political ideology.” But while touting minimal content management; 2022 Report from the nonprofit Public Citizen It found that early users experienced “bans after choosing a username or creating posts that mocked or criticized the former president and his allies.”
Muenster points out that while Truth Social is marketed as a platform for freedom of expression, it still grapples with content moderation, including restricting illegal and copyrighted material. He also says it’s stricter than other platforms regarding sexual content and language.
“Their policies leave a lot of leeway for companies to decide what other types of content they deem inappropriate. “There are reports that we have banned parody accounts that were accused of impersonating ,” Munster said.
How will society change if the truth is made public?
Private companies are responsible to their owners, while public companies are responsible to the shareholders who own the company’s stock. Currently trading on the market, the company is expected to receive approximately $300 million in inflows, and TMTG will be required to report quarterly financials and other material news to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Become. Mr. Trump will initially own a majority stake in the company, but if he decides to sell, the company’s stock will be subject to the whims of Wall Street, where investors seek financial health and growth.
In this sense, Truth Social faces the same problem that X has been fighting: mainstream advertisers who don’t want to engage with hate speech and other controversial content.
“X is also in a precarious situation, but users who leave X because of the new owner’s online activities or political views are likely to turn to one of the many other platforms that seek to replace it, such as BlueSky or Meta’s Threads. “They are likely to choose ‘a platform owned by politicians whose views and activities are also considered problematic,'” Munster said. “However, if this deal goes through, Truth Social will have to cater to investors who want investor returns. To achieve this, the platform will need to attract more users. It will be interesting to see how they try to deal with this.”