Donald Trump Use of Social Media
T ruth Social, Donald Trump's new social media network, was supposed to be "a major new platform" where Republicans and Democrats alike could antipodal in an environment free from the "censorship" of big tech, an environment with an "ironclad commitment to protecting vigorous debate".
Instead, nigh a calendar month after its launch, Truth Social has go a laughingstock, marked past a botched rollout, a share cost plummet and, in Trump, a figurehead who doesn't actually postal service much to his own social media platform.
The network, born out of Trump being banned from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube due to the risk of the old president inciting violence, was due to launch on 21 Feb, five months later Trump announced its creation in a typically hyperbolic statement.
"We alive in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American president has been silenced. This is unacceptable," Trump said.
"I'chiliad excited to soon begin sharing my thoughts on TRUTH Social and to fight back against Big Tech."
When the launch date came circular, however, tens of thousands of people were unable to access Truth Social. The Guardian attempted to sign upward on 21 February and was finally granted access on 5 March.
And near a month subsequently the launch, Trump has so far shared only 1 thought to the platform; a average message in mid-February urging people to "Become ready!".
Unsurprisingly, Trump is said to be unhappy with his new social media network. According to the Daily Creature, people close to Trump "take heard the onetime president on the phone swearing gratuitously and asking things like: 'What the fuck is going on'" with Truth Social.
Trump is said to be particularly piqued by the sluggish rollout – some would-be Truth Social users are still waiting to get on to the platform – and upset that Truth Social is non more than pop.
The onetime president's acrimony is non unfounded. In early on March the network was averaging just 300,000 visits each twenty-four hour period, according to the Daily Beast. Truth Social spent 21-23 February equally the most downloaded app on the Apple app store, according to Similarweb, but by 12 March it was only the 173rd well-nigh popular app.
But the bug with Truth Social become deeper than the fact that barely anyone uses it.
At the fourth dimension of writing, there is no mode to utilize Truth Social on a webpage, with a user forced to download the app to their phone. That only works, all the same, if they have an iPhone, considering Truth Social is non all the same bachelor every bit a Google app. Shared links to individual Truth Social posts bring up an error message.
The site itself is barely distinguishable from Twitter, 1 of the "tech titans" that Trump railed against when he launched Truth Social. Posts on the platform are chosen "truths", and when visiting people's profiles, users can encounter their "truths and replies" – Twitter enables people to view "tweets and replies".
Unlike Twitter, the Truth Social app is sluggish, while the listing of profiles suggested to new users is sparse at all-time – largely because, every bit Politico reported: "Many major players in the conservative world aren't on the app."
The missing major players appear to include the rightwing media figures Steve Bannon, Glenn Beck and Tucker Carlson, as well as Trump's quondam lawyer Rudy Giuliani. (In that location is a @RudyGiuliani account on TruthSocial, but it has only 35 followers and is unverified.)
The big-name conservatives who have joined don't seem to exist seeing much advantage. According to Truth Social Sean Hannity has 266,000 on the platform, but the Trick News host'southward "truths" are struggling for appointment. Hannity posted several truths on Tuesday morning; more than four hours later one post had been liked by ten people, some other by just ix.
Trump's i truth has been liked 86,000 times, and received 13,000 replies, although many of those announced to be spam postings advertizement a niche conservative cryptocurrency.
There is little show of political diversity on Truth Social, despite Trump's promise that the platform would be a "big tent" filled with people of "all political stripes, and all different viewpoints". Whether an repeat sleeping room of rightwing voices proves an attractive suggestion to Truth Social's users remains to be seen.
But while Trump lovers might be willing to put up with a clunky, Twitter-aping platform, and – to date – a dearth of content, a bigger trouble might be that Truth Social is far from the free spoken communication utopia Trump promised.
"We observe ourselves being censored and dictated to by a pocket-size group of cocky-righteous scolds and self-appointed arbiters of what anybody else is allowed to retrieve, say, share, and do," Trump said in a press release in October.
"Nosotros volition not silence our fellow citizens simply because they might be incorrect – or worse, because we call back that Americans 'can't handle the truth'."
But a review of Truth Social's terms of service reveals a comprehensive list of things people tin and cannot exercise and say on the platform.
Users' posts should non incorporate "profanity, or abusive or racist, language", co-ordinate to Truth Social's rules. Posts should also "not comprise discriminatory references based on faith, race, gender, national origin, age, marital condition, sexual orientation, or disability".
Truth Social also reserves the right to "turn down, restrict access to, limit the availability of, or disable" anyone's posts. People should also not brand contributions which are "false, inaccurate, or misleading", which could bear witness a problem for a site founded by a man who continues to lie about the accuracy of the 2020 presidential election.
To Truth Social'due south credit, however, its terms of service do provide an avenue for users to get in touch, should they have any event with these draconian rules.
Truth Social even provides a concrete address where users tin direct their complaints, and it seems that those complaints will go correct to the top. The accost is in Palm Beach, Florida, at 1100 S Ocean Blvd. Specifically, it is the address of Mar-a-Lago, the private members club and vacation resort where Trump has lived since leaving the White Firm.
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