Former US president Donald Trump will be launching his very own social media platform TRUTH Social which is the first project of the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG). It will be listed on the Nasdaq through a merger with Digital World Acquisition Group.
Facebook and Twitter had banned Trump earlier this year and in July, the former US president sued the two social media companies and Google for allegedly censoring him. Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account due to the risk of further incitement of violence following the Capitol Riots on January 6 this year. The microblogging platform said Trump’s tweets were against the company’s Glorification of Violence policy.
“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,” Trump said in a statement. Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s son, told Fox News that Big Tech has suppressed conservative voices for so long. “Tonight my father signed a definitive merger agreement to form what will ultimately be the Trump Media and Technology Group and TRUTH Social – a platform for everyone to express their feelings.”
According to the official statement, TMTG will receive $293 million in cash that Digital World Acquisition Corp had in trust, assuming no shareholder of the acquisition firm chooses to redeem their shares. Shareholder redemptions reduce the amount of cash that Digital World Acquisition Corp will have available to give the TMTG at the closing of the deal. The companies said completion of the merger is subject to redemptions not exceeding an agreed minimum cash requirement. However, the statement did not disclose what the requirement is.
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TRUTH Social is currently available for pre-order in the Apple app store and a beta version will be available to invited guests starting in November 2021. A US rollout is expected in the first quarter of 2022. Furthermore, TMTG intends to launch a subscription video-on-demand service which would feature non-woke entertainment programming, news and podcasts.
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