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Donald Trump to launch new social media platform ‘Truth Social’

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After being banned from both Twitter and Facebook, Trump has announced he will be launching his own platform called ‘Truth Social’. Could it become a success?

Former US president Donald Trump has announced he will be releasing a new social media platform called ‘Truth Social’ early next year.

In a statement, Trump said that he intended to rival other big tech companies for news on current affairs, including mainstream platforms that he is currently barred from. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and a host of other services blocked him earlier this year, citing concerns over misinformation and ‘hateful rhetoric’.

In typical fashion, Trump was keen to emphasise an ‘us against them’ stance in his statement, saying he was ‘fighting back against big tech’. A beta launch will take place in November and will be invite only, with a larger soft launch expected in 2022.

The new platform is part of Trump’s latest business initiative called ‘Trump Media & Technology Group’. It intends to become a public listed company soon and promises a ‘global conversation without discriminating against political ideology’. The former president’s son has also tweeted out a link to the ‘Truth Social’ website.

So far there aren’t many specific details on how ‘Truth Social’ will actually work. It seems to be a mix of both a typical social media app such as Facebook and an algorithm-based news feed, similar to Twitter.

It’s worth keeping in mind that this new platform is unlikely to stick to a promise of ‘unbiased’ news, given that its founder and biggest advocate is Donald Trump, a notorious source of false information and cherry-picked narratives to suit a political agenda. This is the same man whose government coined the term ‘alternative facts’, after all.

This isn’t even the first time he’s tried to launch a comeback to social media, either. In March of this year, Trump announced he was to ‘use his own platform’ to broadcast his opinions, but the eventual product was somewhat underwhelming.

One can’t help but draw parallels to the right-wing ‘alternative’ TV channel ‘GB News’.

Intended to be a mainstream rival to big news companies such as BBC News and Sky, the platform brought in big names during its launch but ultimately failed to gain traction. On several occasions during the summer GB News attracted literally zero viewers.

Despite his fall from grace and two indictments, Donald still has a huge following in the US, which will no doubt help to get ‘Truth News’ off the ground quicker than GB News. A video-on-demand service is planned for 2022 as part of the app and Trump says he has raised £212 million in investment for his media company.

There are plenty who will be willing to jump onboard and we may see ‘Truth News’ become a mainstream staple for information, at least across the pond.

Trump is resilient against all odds, if anything. We’ll have to wait to see if he’ll be able to make a serious dent in the tech industry next year.

Editor In Chief London, UK

I’m Charlie (He/Him), the Editor In Chief at Thred. I studied English at the University of Birmingham and as a music and gaming enthusiast, I’m a nerd for pop culture. You can find me curating playlists, designing article headline images, and sipping cider on a Thursday. Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn and drop me some ideas/feedback via email.

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