Donald Trump’s social media app debuted on Monday as the former US president tries to build a conservative rival to Twitter and Facebook ahead of a possible campaign to retake the White House.
The new platform, Truth Social, is among brands being launched by Trump Media & Technology Group, the media start-up created last year in a bid to fight what he said was the “tyranny of Big Tech”.
Trump used social media extensively during his 2016 campaign and throughout his presidency, often bypassing traditional information channels. But Twitter, Facebook and Google parent Alphabet’s YouTube banned him, following the attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.
Truth Social exhibited some technical problems as it launched on Monday, the Presidents’ Day federal holiday in the US. Some users received error messages or were unable to sign up for the app, which is currently available on Apple’s App Store.
Users who succeeded in registering were met with a message telling them: “Due to massive demand, we have placed you on our wait-list. We love you, and you’re not just another number to us.”
TMTG did not respond for to a request for comment or to say how many people had registered for Truth Social as of Monday.
In addition to Truth Social, which shares some features with Twitter, TMTG suggested in a prospectus last year that it could launch an entertainment company to rival Netflix and Disney, a news channel to take on CNN and a venture to compete with Amazon and Google in cloud computing.
TMTG said last year that its mission was to “fight for the First Amendment protections and freedoms of all Americans, protect democracy, and defend capitalism” with a media company “rooted in social media, digital streaming, information technology infrastructure, and more”.
In October, TMTG announced a merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company, which would take the company public. TMTG later said it had raised $1bn in private investment and public equity financing.
Devin Nunes, a Republican former chair of the US House Intelligence Committee, resigned from his seat to become chief executive of TMTG.
Shares in DWAC have gained by more than eightfold since the merger was announced. In December it emerged that US regulators were investigating DWAC, seeking information about trading activity around the proposed deal.
Several other conservative rivals to Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, such as Parler and Gettr, have so far failed to break the bigger platforms’ social media might.
Trump has been raising money and holding rallies in Republican heartlands in recent months, although the 75-year-old has not yet announced whether he intends to run for the White House again in 2024.
