Trump To Launch New Social Media Platform, Truth Social

Former US president, Donald Trump is set to launch a new social media platform, Truth Social.

Trump said Truth Social will rival big techs like Twitter and Facebook.

According to him, the platform would “stand up to the tyranny of big tech”, accusing them of silencing opposing voices in the US.”

Trump made the announcement on Wednesday in through the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG).

TMTG is a new media company which Trump founded and which is planning a merger with the Digital World Acquisition Corporation.

Trump said, “I am excited to send out my first TRUTH on TRUTH Social very soon. TMTG was founded with a mission to give a voice to all. I’m excited to soon begin sharing my thoughts on TRUTH Social and to fight back against Big Tech.”

Why Trump Launches Truth Social:

Recall that the former president has never had it good with the major mainstream media.

Continuously, he called them fake news carriers and rather resorted to social media to communicate with the world as president.

In fact, Trump also ran his campaign for the White House on social media.

ALSO READ: Donald Trump Remains Banned From Facebook

However, following his comments on social media which many people said were inflammatory and insulting, people mounted pressure on the big tech to ban Trump on their platforms.

Consequently, Twitter latter banned Trump while Facebook suspended him after his supporters stormed the US Capitol during riot.

The two big techs decided to ban or suspend Trump after he alleged fraud in the last election that removed him.

His speeches caused his supporters to riot, resulting in them storming the white House and vandalizing it.

Trump had called the rioters his “patriots,” sparking widespread outrage and prompting Twitter and Facebook to take the respective actions.

Ever since, the former president remained off social media, leading to him cooking up rival platforms.

Previous platform:

Before Trump’s Truth Social, he had, last year, launched a blog platform he called From the Desk of Donald J Trump.

However, less than a month later, he shut down the platform perhaps due to low followers.

But his senior aide, Jason Miller, had defended saying it was “just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on”.

Meanwhile, TMTG said it will open the early version of Trump’s Truth Social to specific guests by September.

The statement also said the social platform that will rival Twitter and Facebook will open for “nationwide rollout” within the first three months of 2022.

Also, a statement by TMTG said it has a goal “to create a rival to the liberal media consortium and fight back against the ‘Big Tech’ companies of Silicon Valley, which have used their unilateral power to silence opposing voices in America.”

Confirming this, Trump said, “We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favourite American President has been silenced.”

He added saying “Everyone asks me why doesn’t someone stand up to Big Tech? Well, we will be soon!”

Subscription video-on-demand service:

With Netflix announcing that its latest movie series, Squid Game alone will generate nearly $900 million in revenue for the company, a business-minded person like Trump will sure want to explore such promising area.

Consequently, Trump’s TMTG is planning to launch a subscription Video-on demand service, like Netflix.

TMTG said its video-on-demand service would “feature ‘non-woke’ entertainment programming, news, podcasts, and more”.

The company calls the service TMTG+.

Also, Trump’s company plans to join the race for cloud-computing space.

Implication:

Although having a rival platform to the big tech is a nice development, Trump’s social media platform may not get much followers.

This is because the mission of the platform is clear, political.

Also, the question of foul languages may come to fore.

This is because Trump himself who is the owner does not regard censorship.

Also, it would take miracle for Trump’s Truth Social to actually compete with Facebook and Twitter.

This is because these big techs have become the people’s favourites.

Nevertheless, we await how Trump plans on overthrowing the big techs so that Truth Social can become a household name.