By all accounts, Truth Social, Donald Trump’s social media platform, has had a tough start.
Engagement is low, the initial download stream of the app has dried up and the first resignations of its senior staff have begun. It’s too early to tell if it’s tough, but as with many Trump companies that fail to come out, the former US president seems to be washing his hands of it: he has hardly used it.
The Twitter clone, where the posts are called “truths”, was launched with great anticipation on President’s Day in February. In short, it was Apple’s most downloaded free app. But three weeks after the launch of Truth Social, its position in the download rankings dropped to 116. Last week, it failed to break the top 200. A study found that downloads dropped by as much as 95%.
Now it looks like Truth Social can go the same way as Trump Steaks and Trump Vodka, just to name a few. Clapping Trump’s name on a product that others make better just doesn’t work – especially now.
And yet – judging by his public statements – this time it had to be a completely different story. “I created Truth Social to counter the tyranny of big technology,” Trump said in October, 10 months after he was permanently banned from Twitter.
But consumers, many expecting a direct channel to Trump and Trumpist thoughts as the former president prepares for the 2024 presidential election, have been deeply disappointed by Truth Social’s experience.
Approximately 1.2 million users who have the Apple-only app face a long wait for access to the platform. “Thank you for joining!” reads the prompt Truth Social. “Because of the high demand, we’ve put you on our waiting list.” Even Trump seems to be clear and has only posted once on the platform.
Meanwhile, Digital Word Acquisition Corp., the special acquisition vehicle or Spac bringing Truth Social to the public, is under investigation by the SEC. The deal was expected to reward investors with millions – and Trump himself with a billion – but now the company is rocked by the eviction of CEOs.
Last week, Josh Adams and Billy Boozer, head of technology and product development at Truth Social, left the company. The Washington Post said the resignations came after Trump Media & Technology Group chief executive Devin Nunes, a former U.S. congressman, tried to install his allies to run the company.
Problems with Truth Social’s service came when Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, became Twitter’s largest shareholder, acquiring a 9.2 percent stake in the company and a seat on the board.
Musk, who has had a series of clashes with US financial regulators over financial announcements made on social media, has indicated he plans to advocate for changes to the platform, which has 80.4 million followers. Shares on Twitter rose more than 27%.
Last month, he asked his followers if Twitter adhered to the principles of freedom of speech. “Freedom of speech is essential for a functioning democracy. Do you believe that Twitter strictly adheres to this principle? ”He asked.
After more than 2 million users responded, Musk wrote: “Given that Twitter serves as a de facto public city square, non-compliance with the principles of freedom of speech fundamentally undermines democracy.
With growing speculation that Musk could use his power as a shareholder and board member to restore Trump on Twitter, where he had 90 million followers, before he was expelled after the Capitol uprising on January 6, the purpose and fate of Truth Social hanging by a thread.
The Trump Media & Technology Group, a Trump venture that advisers said last year would become a “media power”, initially presented Truth Social as the center of its ambition to oppose what the former president routinely calls “fake media for news ”and create a social media presence he currently lacks. But according to the Post, Trump is “angry in private” over Truth Social’s slow absorption and problems and is considering joining rivals Gettr.
For several reasons, Truth Social may have been a step too far, said David Carr of SimilarWeb. The research firm estimates Truth Social’s visitors at 200,000 a day, distorting 70% of men, compared to 1 million for Gettr. Twitter averaged 217 million.
“In the case of Truth Social, Gettr and Parler have already appeared to cater to the same audience that Truth Social is looking for,” Carr said. “So it had to be 150% better and so far it hasn’t created much commitment. If Trump had posted a lot of content and there really was a lingering search for it, maybe things would have been different.
But the apparent failure of Truth Social presents certain truths about social media itself. Most users do not come to it, except perhaps Twitter with a relatively small number of users, for political communication; One-way conversations rarely inspire engagement, and sites require large numbers of users and traffic to have a social impact.
“Community management professionals I know often talk about the ’empty party’ problem of how to break the deadlock, and it’s not an easy problem to solve,” Carr said.
At the heart of the issue is what Joshua Tucker, co-director of the Center for Social Media and Politics at New York University, calls “network effects.” “Social media sites are more valuable to you the more people use them. “Like the phone book, it has no value if there is only one name in it,” he said.
Part of Truth Social’s problem was that it aimed to exclude much of the political spectrum. “They were chasing the mage part of the population, so they started with one hand tied behind their backs,” Tucker said. “It’s a difficult sale, even before the start-up and deployment problems.”
Still, Trump has been routinely underestimated in the past, Tucker said, “and yet he somehow seems to attribute the fact that he’s a pretty unsuccessful businessman to being an incredibly successful political candidate.”
Truth Social was created to oppose what many conservatives ridicule as censorship of “culture abolition” on the left. But because of its conservative dominance, Trump’s social media platform has become an environment for “trolls, self-proclaimed and self-proclaimed experts, conspiracy theorists, attention seekers in all ways,” said Mark Federman of the University of Guelph-Humber.
“Trump’s motivation for Truth Social was to take control of his voice boost. That failed, so he had to admit defeat, “he added.
Add Comment