Summary

The article details the author's experience signing up for Trump's new social media platform, Truth Social, and reflects on its potential success and challenges.

Abstract

The author of the article, who is not the target demographic for Truth Social, describes the process of signing up for the app three days after its launch. Despite being the top app in the Apple App Store, the platform has faced technical issues and is currently operational only as a waiting list, with the author being number 696,760. The app closely resembles Twitter, with "truths" replacing tweets and "retruths" for retweets, but avoids copyright infringement. The author notes the app's financial success and its place among other right-wing platforms, questioning its ability to influence media like Twitter does.

Opinions

The author expresses skepticism about Truth Social's originality and its appeal to the average person.
There is a sense of irony in the fact that Truth Social is successful in terms of downloads and financial backing despite not being fully operational.
The author finds it humorous that Truth Social's terms of service require contributions to be truthful and non-violent, given the platform's context.
The author is doubtful about Truth Social's ability to compete with established platforms like Twitter, especially in terms of media influence and the dynamic of an echo chamber.
The necessity for Trump's son to use Twitter to share his father's first post on Truth Social underscores the new platform's limited reach.

I Just Signed up for Trump’s New Truth Social App, so You Don’t Have To

I’m #696,760 on the waitlist

The former president’s new social media app, Truth Social, (an unabashed knock-off of Twitter,) launched on Monday, February 21st. Since then, the app has experienced one disaster after another.

Many journalists have reported their attempts at signing up for the Truth Social app, with none of them having much success. Most experienced error messages when trying to create their accounts and finally ended up on lengthy waitlists.

This had me wondering, what’s it like to sign up for the app today, now that the initial first-day rush is over?

I’m not the user this app is looking for

Though I am, by far, not the average person the social media app is trying to appeal to, I can’t help but feel extreme curiosity at whatever is going on with Trump’s latest social media attempt.

In the interest of research and sharing my findings with you, I decided I’d see what it was like trying to get on the app three days after its launch.

Truth Social is the #1 app in Apple’s App Store

I will admit my plan gave me some misgivings as I hate to be a part of the reason why Truth Social is the number one downloaded app in Apple’s App Store. Additionally, the new platform has made its financial backers a lot of money in a span of only a few days, even though it won’t be operational until the end of March, according to Reuters.

But, in the interest of pursuing the “truth”, I went ahead and downloaded the app to my iPhone.

But first, a brief background

Trump was wildly active on Twitter (with over 20,000 tweets during his presidency) until he was banned from the popular social media platform after the Capitol riot.

He was also banned from Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. He’s been itching to get back in the limelight ever since.

Truth Social is almost exactly like Twitter

The new app doesn’t seem to be breaking any new ground here. Truths replace tweets, and retruths replace retweets. Despite its similarity to Twitter, copyright experts told Newsweek there doesn’t seem to be any danger of a copyright infringement lawsuit from Twitter.

And finally, my attempt to sign up

The app downloaded to my iPhone almost instantly. (Fun fact: the logo is strikingly similar to a small British trucking company that is “considering legal action” against the new platform.)

Signing up began the standard way. I had to give my birthdate and verify my email. I waited a while for this email until I realized it had gone directly into my spam folder. (Even my Outlook email account knows something fishy is up with me signing up for this app.)

A quick aside, in this email, rather than insert my name in the text, I was addressed as, “Hey Truthsayer.”

Next, it was on to create a password and a username. I made up a fake name for this. If I ever decide to utter a “truth” on the platform, I don’t want my fellow “truthsayers” to be able to find me.

Before signing up I had to agree to the terms of service. One of many rules I will need to abide by includes, “your Contributions are not false, inaccurate, or misleading.” Hahahaha. All I can do is laugh at this one.

Oh, and one more gem, “your Contributions do not advocate or incite, encourage, or threaten physical harm against another.” Hmm, I feel that’s going to be a bit of a tough one for the admins to enforce here and it doesn’t make me feel like laughing this time.

And then, with very little trouble and no error messages, success! I received the message, “Your account has been created successfully!”

However, the message continued, “Thank you for joining! Due to massive demand, we have placed you on our waitlist. We love you, and you’re not just another number to us. But your waitlist number is below.”

#696,760

Despite their reassurance, I can’t help but feel I am “just another number,” since I am literally a number.

The problems with Truth Social go beyond app functioning

Will Truth Social succeed? For one thing, the market is already saturated with other right-wing social media platforms to compete with such as Parler, Gab, and Gettr. Also, social media apps where like-minded thinkers congregate don’t create the kind of controversial stir that the old Trump tweets on Twitter brought about.

Will an app that is full of right-wing followers all agreeing with each other generate much interest? Further, Twitter is so mainstream these days that journalists turn to it for news, quotes, and sources. It’s hard to imagine Truth Social having that kind of influence on the media.

Ironically, Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr. had to post on Twitter what he claimed was his father’s first post on his new platform. Since Twitter is still the only way most people could see it.

In any case, I am here, waiting with bated breath to get through the line of 696,759 people ahead of me. I’ll be sure to let you know when it happens and I get to post my first “truth.”