WASHINGTON — Most people who are on and have reviewed Truth Social, former President Donald Trump’s social media platform, write on Apple’s App Store that they like it.
For people on the waitlist or those who do not have iPhones, it’s a different story.
The million-people-long waitlist for an application that is only available on Apple’s iOS has put many in doubt about when they will be able to join the platform. Leaders for Truth Social have not publicly clarified when these issues, which they have said are temporary, will be fixed.
“We are steadily welcoming new users from our temporary waitlist onto Truth Social for iOS,” Trump Media & Technology Group, which oversees Truth Social, wrote in an email update to people who had signed up in March. “This phased rollout allows us to identify and remedy errors in real time as we onboard new users.”
This week, however, Reuters reported that two key tech entrepreneurs behind Truth Social have quit: Josh Adams and Billy Boozer, the company’s chiefs of technology and product development.
Trump launched TMTG in February 2021 and announced his plans for a social media platform in October. Then in December, former Congressman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said he would resign from his post to become the chief executive officer of TMTG.
While the app’s launch has been seen as rough, the position gave Nunes a megaphone for taking on Big Tech and major media outlets in televised appearances about the platform. It builds off the several lawsuits he filed as a congressman against organizations and critics he claims have defamed him during the past three years. His goal, he has said, is free speech.
“Honestly, it’s just, it’s actually very moving for me to see people that are on the platform that have had their voice canceled,” Nunes told Fox News of Truth Social in February. “And that’s our main goal here is to give people their voice back.”
Truth Social’s woes
Trump launched Truth Social, which largely mirrors Twitter, as an alternative to mainstream social media. He was banned from Twitter following the insurrection on the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The former president turned to press releases in which he has issued endorsements, mocked opponents and talked about his golf game.
Trump has only posted on Truth Social once.
Representatives for Nunes, Trump and TMTG did not respond to requests for comment.
Nunes told Fox News prior to its official launch on Feb. 21 that he thought Truth Social would be “fully operational” by the end of March.
At the beginning of April, there is no indication that those rough patches have smoothed over or update on when it might be available on the Google Play Store for Android users.
A strategist for Sensor Tower, a mobile analytics firm, told The Wrap last week that downloads of Truth Social were down 93% since its launch week.
On March 29, this reporter attempted to sign up for Truth Social. She was notified that she was No. 1,426,074 in line, and she had not moved as of April 4.
It is unclear whether that placement accurately represents the number of people waiting to join Truth Social, as some people have reported that their waitlist number had not moved before they were allowed entry.
Truth Social has a 4.2 out of 5 star rating on the app store as of April 4. The vast majority of raters gives the app 5 stars while almost all of the remaining people give the app 1.
Nunes’ media fights
Nunes’ first lawsuit against a media company, filed in 2019, was against Twitter, a Republican strategist and two anonymous Twitter users who parody a cow and his mother.
Judges dismissed Twitter and the strategist. Nunes is still trying to sue “Devin Nunes’ cow,” @DevinCow, and “Devin Nunes’ Alt-Mom,” @NunesAlt; he has not been able to serve them because they do not know who the people behind the accounts are, his lawyer told the court.
Nunes again attempted to sue Twitter alongside a former constituent of his, but dropped the social media company after being unable to sue it in the other case. The former congressman also sued CNN; NBCUniversal; The Washington Post (twice); Hearst; the compilers of the so-called Steele Dossier; McClatchy, the parent company of The Fresno Bee; and a farmer.
Many of the defendants in these suits have been dismissed or dropped. Nunes has appealed several of these decisions. He has not won or settled in any case.
App promises ‘free speech’
As the legal battles continue, some question the app’s commitment to being “open, free, and honest.”
Matt Ortega, a web developer from California, tried to join Truth Social under the username “DevinNunesCow,” a nod to the Twitter user who was sued by Nunes. Ortega was denied entry, as was first reported by Insider.
When he followed up with the app, they did not respond with a reason why he was turned away, he wrote in a message to The Sacramento Bee, leaving him to assume it was solely about the user name.
Ortega was eventually able to join the platform under a new user name. He told The Bee and shared on Twitter that other accounts were permitted to parody House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and Hunter Biden, the president’s son, though an account nodding to a fake cow that heckles Nunes online was not.
“This incident clearly demonstrates Trump and Truth Social’s claims to protection of free speech is a bunch of bull. The platform is nothing more than right-wing extremism’s safe space,” Ortega told The Bee.
Ortega is not “Devin Nunes’ cow” on Twitter.
Many conservative users said they have found an outlet where they can express themselves.
“As the only Member of Congress to have had my personal @Twitter account banned, I understand what millions of conservatives have gone through having their personal freedom of speech stolen from them by Big Tech for not parroting the approved messaging,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia wrote on her Twitter account on Feb. 20.
The app also has unverified accounts, labeled as bots, that post news releases from various organizations, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The NASA account, in a screenshot sent to The Bee, shows that it was made before Truth Social officially launched, which matches up with when celebrities and politicians were permitted to join.
A social media manager for NASA told The Bee that the organization does not have a presence on Truth Social.
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