Donald Trump's Controversial Social Media Platform Had A Rough Launch Day
Donald Trump's relationship with mainstream social media platforms has been contentious to say the least. After receiving suspensions from Twitter and Facebook in 2021, Trump decided to take his talents elsewhere... to his own new media app. That's how GETTR was launched in July 2021, a venture that promised freedom from censorship and that would suffer major immediate hiccups. As Tech Crunch reported upon its launch, hackers besieged the GETTR's API, doxxing more than 85,000 users' email addresses and locations.
Trump didn't wave the white flag there. Instead, he and his team announced a second attempt at forming his own social media platform in October 2021, per ABC News, this time rebranding it TRUTH Social. As Trump stated in a press release via his Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) division, "I created TRUTH Social and TMTG to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech. We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced."
Well, TRUTH Social arrived on February 21 in the Apple app store, despite many noting that beta screenshots of the app's interface looked shockingly similar to Twitter's (with TRUTH Social apparently calling its version of tweets "Truths" being the main difference). So, how did Trump's big blow to Big Tech exactly land?
Donald Trump's Truth Sayers can't Truth just yet
This is a truth hard to hear for Team Donald Trump, probably. The ex-president's brand-new social media platform, TRUTH Social, became available in Apple app stores on February 21 and had quite the bumpy launch process. According to New York Magazine's Intelligencer, "available" didn't mean "accessible." No "Truth Sayer" (as the app calls its users) has reportedly been able to post "Truths" or "ReTruth" other people's Truths (the app's version of Twitter's Retweets)... as such. "I tried to read the Truth Social Terms of Service, but when I click the link from the homepage, I get redirected to a 404 page. Same thing happens when I try to read the privacy policy. And when I try to sign up for the waitlist, I get sent to a 405 page," CNN Senior Media Reporter Oliver Darcy's complaint stated.
The waitlist seems to be the source of the confusion (and frustration). Most users have limited access because they have apparently been placed on a waitlist, per VICE. "Due to massive demand, we have placed you on our waitlist. We love you, and you are not just another number to us, but your waitlist number is below," the app told users on the list. Just a few hours following its launch, users reported seeing 161,000 other accounts ahead of them. In addition to this speed bump, TRUTH Social is also unfortunately not available outside the U.S., or on Android phones yet.