Former President Donald J. Trump has been banned from much of social media, including his preferred medium, Twitter, for over a year. His attempts to fill the void have failed miserably. Do you recall when he had a LiveJournal-style blog? But he’s been threatening to launch his own social media network for a long time. After many moons, he finally has one. It also has a grandiose (and, appropriately, totally inaccurate) name.
According to The Hill, Trump has announced the establishment of “TRUTH Social,” a new right-wing social media platform. (It looks to be written in all caps.) The platform will be operated by another another Trump organization, Trump Media & Technology Group, which will almost certainly avoid being investigated like the rest of his businesses. The news was accompanied by an equally over-the-top press release.
“I founded TRUTH Social and TMTG to challenge Big Tech’s oppression. We live in a world where the Taliban has a sizable Twitter following, but your beloved American president has been kept silent. “This is inexcusable,” said the statement, which was issued by the big guy himself. There was more to come:
“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. Everyone asks me why doesn’t someone stand up to Big Tech? Well, we will be soon!”
TRUTH is slated to go live in November, with a debut planned for the first quarter of 2022 — around a year after his social media deplatforming and a year after aiding in the fomentation of a failed but fatal insurgency in the Capitol building. When that happens, it will have to compete with all of the other far-right social media platforms, each of which has had its own set of problems, including data breaches. But isn’t the president-turned-failed blogger extremely wealthy?
