London – Donald Trump is not giving up: The company in charge of his social network used Truth Social itself to blame the media this Monday (29), even after the former president formalized concerns about the future of his social network with the US securities agency. “criticizing and belittling” the project.
In addition to a wave of dissatisfaction with technical issues preventing the app from loading, after a clumsy startup where launch was delayed by three months, Truth Social saw a surge of interest in the week of the FBI’s in-residence action. Trump in Florida.
But at the same time, the startup is facing problems such as falling ratings since its launch, inability to register the Truth Social trademark, and $1.6 million in debt to its hosting provider.
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Trump returns to the Truth Social network
On top of that, a pessimistic report came from the company hired for the IPO of the Trump project, which was submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission last week.
In the document released by the Washington Post, contract consulting firm Digital World Acquisition (DWAC) admitted to regulatory authority that Truth Social could be “harmed” if the former president “becomes less popular” or has “more controversy that will undermine his credibility.”
as a public offering Trump Media & Technology Group (which plans to operate in other media businesses in addition to the social network) is DWAC’s main project, but has also been affected by the confusion: its shares are down 75% since March, including a 9% drop. Monday of this week.
None of this matters to Donald Trump.
After the bad news circulated over the weekend, she posted on Truth Social early Monday to her followers, calling her “our voice” and asking her supporters to subscribe to the network.
Noted for daily attacks on the press during his tenure, the former president used the narrative of blaming “fake news media” that would be “destroyed” by the success of Truth Social.
He highlighted the 550% increase in downloads in the week after the FBI raided his home in Mar-a-Lago in early August.
The app climbed 66 positions in the Apple App Store from 76 to 15 on August 9, one day after agents called home. They were looking for boxes of classified documents brought there after his term ended.
However, the number of spectators is not very encouraging. According to tracking company Similarweb, Views fell 80% in six months, from 1.5 million views per day in February to 300,000 per day in July.
After being banned from major networks, Trump’s audience shrank
Before being banned from major social media platforms following the Capitol Hill invasion in January 2021, the former president was a social media phenomenon. The most influential network among politicians, activists and journalists alone, Twitter had 89 million followers.
The first attempt to return to the dialogue with followers was a kind of blog on the website, which is very similar to tweets, with posts that would theoretically be shared on social networks by their followers. But the idea flopped after less than a month without expected shares.
Also Read | Trump blog audience failure raises questions about own social networking plans
In October, Trump announced Truth Social, a grandiose initiative that will raise funds from investors to challenge what the former president calls “the tyranny of Big Tech.”
Shortly after the announcement, a hacker exposed the project’s technological weakness: he hacked the beta version, created fake accounts (Trump himself) and posted a picture of a pig defecating on the former president’s account.
Commissioning scheduled for November has been postponed. In December, Trump sought to signal the success of the project to the market by highlighting the alleged $1.25 billion fundraising as a sign of strength across major platforms.
Also Read | Trump announces $1.25 billion fundraiser for his social network and pledges to fight “Big Tech tyranny”
The app was finally released exclusively on the Apple Store in February. More than 2 million downloads were made, but still far from the nearly 90 million followers the politician has on Twitter.
October’s technical problems did not go away, causing more than 1.5 million users to be unable to log in to Truth Social.
Although more than a month has passed, even the owner of the network has not shared anything yet.
It’s too early to assess the residual impact of the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search and seizure action, but the impact of Trump’s posts is far from what he’s used to on Twitter.
Many users, including Trump himself, who called the operation “unfair”, posted angry messages about the FBI. But the number of shares was less than 18,000 the day after it was published.
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According to the Washington Post, Trump Less than 4 million followers on Truth Social. And the network’s most active trending threads, including #DefundTheFBI, showed that only a few thousand people messaged them in recent days.
twitter alreadyThe trail that approximately 37 million people in the USA actively use the platform on a daily basis.
Truth Social name debts and litigation
Trump’s only problem is not the drop in ratings. A Fox Business report last week revealed that Truth Social has been battling hosting provider RightForge, which hasn’t gotten paid since March.
The spiked bill is $1.6 million, according to Fox. And the supplier would threaten to sue to collect the debt.
RightForge declined to comment on the dispute over the payment and issued a statement signed by Chief Executive Martin Avila, demonstrating confidence in the Truth Social project:
‘RightForge believes in the mission of President Trump’s free speech platform and looks forward to continuing to support the President in his media efforts.’
The name of the social network is another problem.
Also, according to Fox Business, the Truth Social trademark application was rejected by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) under Section 2d of the Trademark Act because of the “risk of confusion” with other companies that already own trademarks.
The USPTO ruling says the Truth Social name is “confusingly similar to the trademarks The Truth Network and Vero – True Social.”
“First of all, all brands [são] It’s a variation of the word ‘correct’ or ‘correct’, meaning all brands look and feel like the average consumer,” he said.
Truth Social can still appeal the decision.
Also Read | Who is the editor who gave the global media the ‘scoop’ on the FBI’s search of Trump’s house on a plate?
source: Noticias
