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Truth Social: Donald Trump launches his own social network

Ex-US President Donald Trump, who is still blocked on Twitter, has announced his intention to launch his own social network Truth Social. Even before the official launch, there were the first incidents.

Against the “tyranny of big tech”

As a reason for founding his own network, Trump states in the statement that he wants to fight against the “tyranny of Big Tech.” The central point of reference for this statement is likely to be Trump’s blocking of accounts on the most important social media. After multiple violations of the terms of use, the U.S. president had been blocked on Twitter, and after the storming of the Capitol, Twitter decided not to unblock the account. In the aftermath, there were not only welcoming reactions indicating that Trump’s high-profile fueling of conspiracy narratives, along with their consequences, had come to an end, but also critical statements pointing to Twitter’s exposed role and the associated freedom-of-opinion-related sensitivity of suspensions of public figures – regardless of the respective statements of these individuals.

Trump, however, used the announcement not only to criticize Twitter, but also to self-stylize: “We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced. This is unacceptable.” At this point, reference can also be made to the naming of the new Twitter alternative: With the name Truth Social, Trump is highlighting a claim to truth and general validity, which he has already made several times in the past for his dubious or even refuted statements in terms of content, prominently for example with regard to an alleged, unproven election fraud. The naming of the new service is also close to Fake News rhetoric.

Pre-orders are possible

The service is scheduled to launch at the end of February 2022, but pre-orders in the App Store are already possible. In addition, a test phase has been announced for November of this year. In the context of the announcement of the test phase and the opening of the prebooking phase, two major incidents occurred. For example, numerous people found a way to register for the not-yet-opened test version and opened various accounts with the names of celebrities in it – including an account @donaldjtrump. After this test environment went offline, access to a second such environment could be found, where something similar subsequently happened. All of this raises questions about the technical security of the planned new network.

In addition, the app store advertises materials showing alleged profiles of well-known institutions, including, for example, the New York Times, on the Truth Social network. Permissions for the use of such advertising materials do not appear to be available.

Simon Lüthje

I am co-founder of this blog and am very interested in everything that has to do with technology, but I also like to play games. I was born in Hamburg, but now I live in Bad Segeberg.

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Ex-US President Donald Trump, who is still blocked on Twitter, has announced his intention to launch his own social network Truth Social. Even before the official launch, there were the first incidents. Against the „tyranny of big tech“ As a reason for founding his own network, Trump states in the statement that he wants to … (Weiterlesen...)

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