We will no longer read his tweets, but his “truths” (the “truths” in French). Donald Trump’s new social network, “Truth Social”, will gradually go online from Monday and should be “fully operational” by the end of March, more than a year following the exclusion of the former American president from Twitter and Facebook, following the assault on the Capitol.
“We’re going to start rolling out the app to people on Apple this week,” Devin Nunes, head of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the new network’s parent company, told Fox News on Sunday. “I think by the end of March we will be fully operational, at least in the United States,” added the former parliamentarian, who left Congress earlier this year to lead TMTG.
“Truth Social” – truth means “truth” in English – was presented by Donald Trump as an alternative to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, from which he was banned following the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. He is accused of inciting his supporters to violence. On Sunday, the app was marked “Expected February 21” on mobile app download stores. It already exists in a test version, used by supporters of the billionaire.
For people “who have seen their voice muzzled”
“It’s touching for me to see people who have had their voices muzzled using the platform,” said Devin Nunes, referring to the “cancel culture”, this idea according to which personalities find themselves erased from the public square. by popular opinion described as “well-meaning” by the right. “We want them to tell us what content they want on the platform,” he added. “Unlike the crazed Silicon Valley oligarchs who tell people what they want them to think and decide who can or cannot be on the networks. »
February 21 is a holiday in the United States honoring American presidents. Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump have also planned to sell 10,000 NFTs on this date illustrating key moments of the former Republican head of state’s mandate, such as the July 4 visit to Mount Rushmore and Christmas at the White House.
“THE TRUTH is coming…” tweeted Élise Stefanik, the number three elected Republican in the House of Representatives on Friday, in reference to the threatening formula of the TV series “Game of Thrones”, “Winter is coming…”. She posted a screenshot of her message on Truth Beta, the testing version of the social network: “I’m so happy to be on TRUTH! Thanks to President @realDonaldTrump for his leadership. Together, America’s First Patriots will SAVE AMERICA, smash the tech giants, and protect FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION! »
“The time for truth has come,” tweeted Donald Trump Junior, the son of the former leader, on Tuesday, with a screenshot of a message from his father on the network: “Be prepared! Your favorite president will soon receive you. »
To compete with other platforms
According to various press releases, the TMTG group has approximately 1.25 billion dollars to attack its competitors in the already very crowded market of social networks popular with ultra-conservatives, such as Gettr, launched at the beginning of July by Donald Trump’s former adviser, Jason Miller, but also Parler and Gab. In December, TMTG announced that it had entered into a partnership with the Canadian video streaming platform Rumble, stating that the beta version had already been launched using their cloud service (remote computing).
At 75, Donald Trump leaves doubts regarding his intention to run once more, or not, for the Republican nomination in the race for the White House. He is under investigation over his handling of his taxes, how he allegedly tried to stay in power following his defeat in November 2020. His handling of official documents that should have been passed to the US National Archives is also called into question.
Before the deletion of his Twitter account, the social network was Donald Trump’s favorite platform, which he used in turn to make presidential announcements and to formulate attacks once morest his political enemies. He had nearly 89 million subscribers there, whom he spoke to every day.