Thursday October 21, 2021
Listen for “favorite presidents”
Trump starts his own online network
For years, Donald Trump kept his followers happy via Twitter, and he also prefers to announce important decisions via the platform. After his account was blocked, there is speculation that he will set up his own network. It now seems to be the case.
Former US President Donald Trump plans to launch his own online network shortly. Truth Social is the name of the platform with which he will stand up to “the tyranny” of the big tech companies, Trump said. A test version for selected users should therefore go online in November. The full version will then be available to the general public at the beginning of next year.
“We live in a world where the Taliban have a large presence on Twitter, but your favorite American president has been silenced,” Trump said. “This is unacceptable.” Behind the announced platform is a new, listed company that will result from the merger of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and Digital World Acquisition (DWAC), if the supervisory authorities and shareholders agree, according to the press release distributed by both partners . TMTG should therefore also bring a video service to the start that will concentrate on politically incorrect entertainment formats.
Trump was highly active on online networks during his tenure, particularly on Twitter. After storming the Capitol while formally confirming his presidential challenger Joe Biden’s win on January 6, he was accused of poking people online. The most important networks then blocked his profiles. Facebook, where Trump had 35 million followers, banned the Republican indefinitely on May 7. “Because of the risk of further incitement to violence”, Twitter closed Trump’s account with almost 89 million followers a short time later. Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat and others followed.
First blog attempt failed
Since then, Trump has been looking for ways to regain his former reach via the online networks. He has so far not been successful with lawsuits against the tech companies. For a while, the ex-president tried to keep his followers happy with his own micro-blog. There were short articles and press releases on a sub-section of his website entitled “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump”. However, the project was discontinued after a few weeks.
Trump’s former advisor Jason Miller founded the online network Gettr earlier this year, but Trump has not yet joined it. Shortly after Truth Social announced, Miller congratulated his ex-boss on “getting back into social media.” “Now Facebook and Twitter will lose even more market share,” he said.