On Tuesday, former US president Donald Trump announced that his new social media platform ‘Truth Social’ would add streaming and video.
With the public launch due in 2022, the social media platform has striking similarities with Twitter – one of the many platforms that banned Trump’s account in January. Some additional features on Truth Social include tweeting or “truthing”, retweeting or “retruthing” and a newsfeed or a “truthfeed.”
Although the platform has not yet been launched, online vigilantes Anonymous managed to hack the platform and created fake profiles. Among them was a fake Trump account that posted a picture of a defecating pig. The accounts have since been removed.
According to the platform’s terms of service users are forbidden to “disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us or the Site”. Truth Social can then “suspend or terminate your account.”
This is despite the platform’s claim to be “America’s ‘Big Tent’ social media platform that encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation.”
The former US President has also been experimenting with other forms of audience strategy. In May 2021, Trump launched his own blog “From the Desk of Donald J Trump,” before it was discontinued a month later.