Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Truth Social” app launched on Monday, reaching the top of Apple’s U.S. App Store rankings on its debut.
The Truth Social app was created by Trump and his entourage due to conservative censorship on apps, such as Twitter. Aiming to promote freedom of expression, it encourages its users to share their opinion and insists that it is free from censorship. “What makes Truth Social different? We are a social media platform free from political discrimination. Join us and share, communicate and have fun! the app description reads.
Trump’s Truth Social is launched just over a year after the former US president was permanently banned from Twitter for his role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. And, as of publication, Truth Social is the highest ranked free app on the US App Store. It’s also the #1 trending title in the App Store’s “Social Media” category.
Trump app considered a success
The Conservatives’ joy at the launch of this new app can be summed up by House Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene. “I understand what millions of conservatives have gone through having their personal freedom of speech stolen by Big Tech for not repeating approved messages,” she said.
Greene’s own Twitter account was suspended last month for spreading misinformation about COVID-19.
Users report issues with the Trump app
Despite the seemingly successful launch, there seemed to be a lot of user issues with the app. A number of people have complained that it took multiple attempts to complete registration, with many users reporting that there were hundreds of thousands of waiting lists to use the app.
Although it apparently generated widespread interest, many users who attempted to sign up for Truth Social accounts on Monday reported encountering error messages, such as this: “Something went wrong. Please try again,” when they tried to sign up.
“Apple released the Truth Social app to the App Store at 11:00 p.m. on February 20,” a message on the Truth Social status page said on Sunday. “The Truth Social app is live, although user creation is currently limited during our rollout. We will be increasing capacity over the next few hours to allow more users to join Truth Social.
Trump supporters claimed it was evidence of the app’s immense popularity, while critics said it was evidence of poor design planning. Anyway, the fact remains that most users still cannot access Truth Social.
The platform’s tech team themselves seem to have acknowledged the problem, saying that “overwhelming demand at launch” forced them to limit signups and that they were “working to increase the capacity of registration for integration”.
An Android version of the Truth Social app is in development, but there has been no ETA on when it might launch.
