Wednesday night, former President Donald Trump and his team announced plans to launch a “media powerhouse” that will help them win the long-running battle against Big Tech. Regardless, pranksters soon found a picture of a defecating pig and posted it to the “donaldjtrump” Instagram account.
Truth Social has since been taken offline, indicating that Trump will face significant challenges in building a business based on the Internet.Â
All major social media platforms banned him after his supporters stormed the U.S. President Donald Trump has agitated for months to regain the online megaphone that once broadcast his voice worldwide.
His new media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, released a presentation Wednesday claiming that the new network would be the first of many tentpoles that will one day compete with CNN, Disney, and Facebook.
Despite these issues, the site’s early hours revealed lax security, rehashed features and a series of bizarre design choices. Soon after it was shown, anyone could join the site through an open signup page, which created the “donaldjtrump” account and the pig post. All new signups were shut down shortly afterwards.
Requests for comment were not immediately answered by a Trump Media & Technology Group spokesperson.
CLONE OF TWITTER
It is almost a Twitter clone: users can post Truths, tweets, or Re-Truths, retweets. According to its App Store profile, the social network offers a news feed titled the Truth Feed that notifies users of interactions with their Truths.
This site runs a mostly unmodified version of Mastodon. Mastodon is an open-source, free platform that allows anyone to build their social network.
Eugen Rochko, the founder of Mastodon, told The Post that Trump’s site might violate the platform’s licensing rules, which require developers to share any modifications and link to the original code. To decide, Rochko contacted the company’s legal counsel.
In the event of a violation, Mastodon could not shut down the site, Rochko said, because users could host their software. A feature of the platform is its independence, but “it does not mean the platform is independent from laws, so legal action remains an option.”
In an interview on Fox News on Wednesday night, Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. said the social network would begin beta testing in a few weeks and launch in the first quarter of next year.
His caustic, attack-filled attitude defined Trump’s years on social media. A description of Truth Social’s App Store listing stated that the site would be a place for families with “varying opinions” to “have an amazing time together and share their viewpoints on the world.” In addition to posting news stories, photos and videos, the company promised that the site would include essential features that social networks have offered for a decade.
FEATURES TO CONSIDER
According to Viacom, the site will include all the essential features that have become standard on social networks for almost a decade, like the ability to post news articles, photos, and videos. But the site’s terms of service contain rules that would hamstring Trump himself, and Trump’s online screeds are infamous for their extensive use of capital letters.Â
Donald Trump’s social media site is intended to be the politically incorrect safe space he promised.
Despite the site’s positioning as a place for free speech unhindered by censorship, Trump’s site bans content that could “disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm us and/or the Site,” the terms state.Â
SECTION 230
Additionally, they show that the company is hoping to benefit from a provision of the Communications Decency Act that Trump has often criticized: Section 230, which protects companies from legal liability for the material their customers’ post.
Earlier this year, President Trump threatened to veto a massive and unrelated bill for military spending unless Congress repealed a longstanding law, which Trump called for being “completely terminated.”
According to the site’s terms of service, the company isn’t responsible for any Third-Party Content posted on, accessible through, or downloaded from the site, including accuracy, offence, opinions, and reliability.
Section 230 has been cited by Trump as an example of social media companies being biased against conservatives, especially after posts he made misrepresenting election fraud were deemed misleading. A company representative said it reserves the right to “refuse, restrict, limit, or disable” access or contributions from a user.
TRUTH SOCIAL
There are primarily harmless examples of posts that users might share on Truth Social’s App Store listing, like, “What is your favourite place to go in the world? You’ll be amazed at how beautiful Jamaica is.”
However, it also illustrates logos for companies and, in one image, an entire fake post allegedly by the carmaker Chevrolet declaring that it was “going electric.” A spokesman for General Motors, which owns Chevrolet, said the company is not affiliated with the platform.
According to company filings, it trademarked in July “Truth Social” and “Trump Plus.” The latter is expected to include TV shows, movies, podcasts, and “online games.” Records indicate that the company also applied to trademark terms including “truthing,” “post a truth,” and “retruth.”
Trump terminates blog after 29 days, infuriated by measly readership.
According to the presentation, Trump still enjoys the fame and following he earned over the years on social media. About three of the approximately 20 slides cite Trump’s peak Twitter following of 89 million accounts to claim that the former president could still galvanize the “conservative media universe.”
Other media properties revealed in the Gettr statement included a short-video network called “GVision” and a payments system called Gettr. However, despite its low-budget social network, it has gotten into trouble, including a launch plagued by terrorist propaganda and cartoon pornography. “Let the downloads begin!” the statement said. Â
