The company behind Donald Trump’s far-right social media platform, Truth Social, made its public debut last week.
Its parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, merged with Digital World Acquisition Corp. started to negotiate under the ticker DJT Tuesday. The company’s market valuation has reached as much as $13 billion by one measure, thanks to small investors fueling the rise.
The deal made Trump much richer, but several experts warned that the company was extremely overvalued.
I decided to take a day trip to its main platform, Truth Social, to see what’s going on.
Trump’s ‘truthful’
I registered without any problem and was greeted as a “Truth Teller”.
After opening the app, I was greeted with the platform’s “Trending Topics” of the day: “#Truth,” “#NBC,” “#MAGA” and “#Trump2024.” Before I even opened my main feed, I had an idea of what might happen to me.
The layout of Truth Social is pretty standard; the main feed follows a similar structure to Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter. My feeds were divided into three tabs: “following”, “for you”, and “groups”.
My “for you” page was dominated by right-wing influencers, including TikTok liberals and Trump himself. It was also littered with posts, memes and videos supporting the former president.
Like most platforms, Truth Social was populated with the big news stories of the week, including the Baltimore bridge collapse. However, some “truthers” had a more singular view of the mass causality event.
“Is there a better summary of Biden’s America,” mused a certain Truther in an article sharing a video of a ship colliding with the bridge.
Conspiracy theories
Another key part of my “for you” feed was the fierce hatred of President Joe Biden.
I logged at least 10 anti-Biden posts in my first few minutes of scrolling through the app.
“It’s March 28th and Joe Biden is the WORST president in US history,” one user posted, seemingly without much context.
“Biden, certified imbecile,” read another, sharing a link to the conservative news and politics site RedState.
Most of Truth Social’s content is highly political, and my feed was littered with fellow “truthers” spouting conspiracy theories. Almost all of the news articles shared by users came from conservative outlets such as the Washington Examiner.
Current events, such as the Baltimore bridge collapse, have often been used as a springboard for political commentary. One user linked the bridge – as well as recent aviation issues – to the debate over supposed problems caused by diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.
Amateur production
Truth Social is still a relatively new platform – and it shows. First launched in February 2022, it has faced financial and regulatory issues for most of its existence.
It welcomed around five million active members in February according to research firm Similarweb, CBS News reported.
The platform still feels like an amateur production compared to its more established rivals. It has a busy layout and is filled with strange sponsored ads.
Overall, I won’t be returning.
Unless you have a burning desire to fill your days with overly political content, Truth Social may not be the social media platform for you.
businessinsider
