Truth Social, the Trump-backed, alternative social media platform that recently emerged as a promised alternative to mainstream sites, isn’t doing particularly well. Trump launched the site amid his continued bans from higher-profile platforms like Twitter and Facebook, but after an initial burst of interest, new downloads of the app — which is only available for iPhones — have dramatically fallen. Relatedly, the stock price for the so-called blank check company associated with the whole operation has also continued its downward trek — over the past month, it’s lost about half its value. As of early Monday, the share price for Digital World Acquisition Corp. stood at around $35. On March 25, it was at over $71. And at a recent rally, Trump struggled to even accurately refer to the site by its actual name.
One of the issues on Truth Social: links to websites don't always populate correctly. That has Roger Stone very upset, who wrote: “Hey Devin Nunes – why don't links populate on TruthSocial? You have unlimited cash to fix this,” before calling it “not rocket science.”
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) April 24, 2022
What does it say about the long-term viability of the platform if former President Trump — the man ostensibly behind it all — seemingly struggles to remember what it’s called? He referred to the site as “Truth Central” at one point. And tech problems apparently continue: as recapped by journalist Zachary Petrizzo: ‘One of the issues on Truth Social: links to websites don’t always populate correctly. That has Roger Stone very upset, who wrote: “Hey Devin Nunes – why don’t links populate on TruthSocial? You have unlimited cash to fix this,” before calling it “not rocket science.”’ Nunes, though, doesn’t seem particularly in touch with the technological facts of what’s going on here. Recently, Nunes — who’s a former Republican Congressman from California-turned-CEO of the Trump Media & Technology Group — touted the supposed presence of Fox News on Truth Social. The problem is that it wasn’t Fox. “We are not on Truth Social,” a Fox spokesperson told Axios.
New: Sources say former Trump aide Stephanie Grisham told the Jan. 6 committee to talk to Trump’s onetime lead US Secret Service agent Anthony Ornato — who gave Meadows the intel around Jan. 4 that there could be violence at the Capitol
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) April 24, 2022
The account behind the confusion, which billed itself as Fox, was verified — so clearly, there are some serious problems. These issues have culminated in comparatively low levels of interest in Truth Social. According to Apptopia data made available within the last month, daily downloads of Truth Social’s app had fallen to around 8,000 — a roughly 95 percent drop since its debut. Around the same time, Apptopia data also showed daily active users of Truth Social at around 513,000 — but the individuals who could open the app on their phones but were still on the sometimes lengthy wait-list could have muddied those numbers. On the corporate side of the whole operation, Reuters recently reported that two executives at the Trump Media & Technology Group, including Josh Adams and Billy Boozer, had quit. According to Reuters, Adams and Boozer served as the company’s chiefs of technology and product development, respectively. In other words: none of these efforts seem to be going in an overwhelmingly positive direction. Trump has barely even posted on Truth Social, as if he’s not even that interested in seeing it succeed.
Motherlode of Meadows texts obtained by CNN includes this one fomr Marjorie Taylor Greene on Jan. 17 in which she says multiple colleagues advocated for Trump to declare martial law. https://t.co/8YNVqDtZco pic.twitter.com/GYXVPR5b6S
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) April 25, 2022
