Insights into Truth Social, the social media platform launched by Donald Trump

After being banned from popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, ex-President Donald Trump introduced his own social media platform, Truth Social, in early 2022.

Although he’s since been reinstated to both, he’s mostly stayed out of X, the Elon Musk-owned platform that was once his primary megaphone. Meanwhile, on Facebook, his posts are largely videos and pictures with slogans and messages like “THANK YOU MISSOURI! TOGETHER WE WILL MAKE AMERICA AGAIN!!!”

That likely won’t change even after Trump Media & Technology Group begins trading on the NASDAQ stock market.

Here are some things you need to know about Trump’s social media platform and where it fits into the larger social media landscape.

WHAT IS TRUTH SOCIAL?

Before Truth Social, Trump’s personal website had a short-lived blog called “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump.” But that didn’t last long, and Trump’s camp was already hinting that the former president had a social media platform in the works.

Truth Social was released on Apple’s App Store in February 2022. It had a rocky start, but it rose to the top of Apple’s list of most downloaded free apps. While the platform sought to capitalize on the furor over Trump’s social media bans to appeal to a broad audience, Truth Social, like fellow right-leaning social media platforms Gettr and Parler, hasn’t been able to get much outside of the conservative political echo chamber. comments – if they can stay online at all.

“It’s marketed to oppose mainstream media apps that Trump and his supporters claim discriminate against their views and limit free speech. Its content and audience are overwhelmingly conservative and consist of a MAGA base,” said Roxana Muenster, a Cornell University doctoral student who studies the far right and digital communications. “There is also a lot of hate speech and extremism on the platform due to their lax approach to content moderation.”

HOW BIG IS IT?

The company behind Truth Social does not disclose user numbers. As stated in the regulatory filing, TMTG has since its inception focused on developing Truth Social by improving features and user interface rather than relying on traditional performance metrics such as average revenue per user, ad impressions and pricing, or active user accounts. including monthly and daily active users.”

Nevertheless, research firm Likeweb estimates that Truth Social had around 5 million monthly visits as of February this year. For example, according to Meta’s own reporting, TikTok has more than 2 billion and Facebook has more than 3 billion monthly active users. However, the site is doing better than competitors in the so-called “alt-tech” space, such as Parler, which just returned to Apple’s app store this week after being offline for more than a year, or Gettr, which had fewer than 2 million visitors in February.

Trump reaches far fewer people on his platform, where he has less than 7 million followers, than on X, where he has 87 million followers.

“Truth Social is unlikely to compete with mainstream social media platforms anytime soon. For many users, Trump will draw them to Truth Social. For many others, it will keep them away,” Muenster said. “But more importantly, it’s hard to compete with X because of the way platforms work. Social networks benefit from scale: The more users there are on one platform, the more its value increases – this is called network effects.

Digital World itself has emphasized the need to grow its user base in order to succeed. In its filing with US regulators, the company listed many of TMTG’s risks. The most important of them is the platform’s need to grow its user base

“To be successful, TMTG needs millions of people to register and regularly use TMTG’s platform,” the company wrote. “If President Trump becomes less popular or new controversies emerge that damage his credibility or people’s desire to use a platform associated with him and from which he derives financial benefit, TMTG’s results of operations could decline.”

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Totuuus Social looks and feels a bit like X. Users have a profile, can follow each other, post “truths” or “truths” and send direct messages. The ads are called “sponsored truths.”

In order to register, Truth Social asks for an email address and a phone number. Users must agree to receive text messages before they can complete the login process. This is rare for social media companies that want to attract as many people as possible, as it can turn off some potential users. And unlike mainstream social media companies that allow teenagers to sign up, Truth Social requires users to be at least 18 — though it doesn’t confirm the age.

Truth Social’s feed looks a lot like X’s, with a purple color scheme and a “for you” section of recommended posts and a feed of accounts the user follows. There are plenty of conservative-leaning political messages, votes in support of Trump, immigration, and against President Joe Biden.

As part of the agreement, which runs until February 2025, Trump has agreed to wait six hours after posting on Truth Social before posting any “non-political communications” on other social media platforms.

However, this is at the sole discretion of the former president, and as the company notes in the regulatory filing, “as a presidential candidate, he may view most or all of President Trump’s social media posts as politically related.”

HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO OTHER PLATFORMS?

Newer social media apps aimed at conservative users, including Truth Social, Parler, and Gab, don’t come close to the success of Facebook or X. That’s partly because Republican politicians and causes already attract large audiences to existing, more established platforms, so they see little reason to switch to a new service.

A 2022 Pew Research Center poll — the most recent available — found that while 27% of Americans had heard of Truth Social, only 2% used it to get their news. Still, the site fared better than competing conservative apps. It was second only to Parler, which was temporarily taken offline after the January 6 attack.

Truth Social says it encourages “open, free and honest global discourse free from political ideology.” But while it has touted low content moderation, a 2022 report by the nonprofit Public Citizen noted that early adopters experienced “bans thereafter.” choose usernames or write messages that mock or criticize the former president and his allies.”

Muenster notes that while Truth Social is marketed as a platform for free expression, it still practices some content moderation, including restricting illegal or copyrighted material. It’s also stricter on sexual content and language than other platforms, he said.

“Their policy also leaves a lot of room for the company to decide what type of content they deem inappropriate. And they’ve taken advantage of that, saying they’ve banned accounts that tweeted about the January 6 investigation and parody accounts accused of impersonation.” Muenster said.

HOW DOES THE TRUTH SOCIAL CHANGE NOW THAT IT’S PUBLIC?

Private companies are accountable to their owners, while public companies are accountable to their shareholders who own shares in the company. Now that it is traded on the market, about $300 million is expected to flow into the company, and TMTG is required to report its quarterly financials and other material news to the Securities and Exchange Commission. While Trump will initially own most of his shares if he chooses to sell them, the company’s shares are subject to the whims of Wall Street, with investors looking for a healthy economy and growth.

In this sense, Truth Social faces some of the same problems that X has struggled with – mainstream advertisers who don’t want to be associated with hate speech and other controversial content.

“X is also in a precarious position, but users who leave X because of its new owner’s online activity or political views are more likely to choose one of the many other platforms trying to replace X, such as BlueSky or Meta’s Threads. a platform owned by a politician whose views and operations they also find problematic,” Muenster said. “But if this deal goes through, Truth Social will have to answer to investors, investors who want their investment to pay off. For this to happen, the platform needs to attract more users. It will be interesting to see how they try to go about this.”