Trump’s new social media site TRUTH seems to be a bunch of bullshit

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It’s no secret that former US President Donald Trump hates being out of the limelight. Deplatformed by many social media platforms in the wake of the Jan 6 invasion of the US Capitol building, he’s launching his own social media site, TRUTH, so he can’t get kicked off again.

The new social site is slated to launch in beta this November, with carefully invited guests only. We’re not so sure how well all of those Type-Alpha personalities will handle being in a beta, but they won’t have long to wait as a national rollout is coming in the first quarter of 2022, according to the press release.

At least, that’s the plan, but it might not get that far. Mikael Thalen, staff writer at The Daily Dot managed to snag Trump’s handle when someone found a link to the signup page ahead of the launch. Sure, the account will likely be taken back by the site’s admin, but it really should have been reserved ahead of time for its most illustrious user, no?

The replies to Mikael’s tweet are pretty illuminating as well, with TRUTH looking like it was a fork of an open-source social network project called Mastodon. Now, that’s not bad on its own, many other social sites use Mastodon, including similarly-right-leaning Gab.

The issue is that TRUTH apparently isn’t adhering to the usage licenses that Mastodon requires, like the GPL (General Public Licence), which is AGPL3. This could potentially attract a lawsuit from Mastodon, as soon as the site goes live. Then again, it’s not like Trump is a stranger to lawsuits, so he doesn’t seem to be bothered.

The terms of service of TRUTH Social also prohibit using the site in a way that breaks the law. It seems that doesn’t apply to the admins.

Other points in the terms of service that are at odds with the site’s mission of “give a voice to all” include a provision against poking fun at the site, and one about “copy or adapt the Site’s software” which is probably in breach of the open-source software license that Mastodon requires.

Will TRUTH fade away soon after launch, as did other right-leaning social sites like Parler or FRANK? The truth will come out in time.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Trump wants to tweet so bad that he’s gone to a federal judge to complain
• Facebook is such a dumpster fire, the company wants to completely rebrand itself with a new name
• YouTube’s updated misinformation policies led to less bullshit on Facebook and Twitter
• Instagram’s solution to its teen problem? A new “take a break” feature

Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.