The commitment is low, the initial flood of downloads of the application has gradually withered and the first resignations of its top staff have begun. It’s too early to say if it’s hard, but as is the case with many Trump companies that fail to take off, the former US president seems to be washing his hands of it: he has just used it. The Twitter clone, where the posts are called “truths”, was released with high expectations on President’s February Day. It was for a while the free app with the most downloads at Apple. However, three weeks after the release of Truth Social, its position in the download chart dropped to 116. Last week it failed to break the top 200. A study found that downloads have dropped by up to 95%. It now seems that Truth Social can move in the same way as Trump Steaks and Trump Vodka, to name just a few. Hitting Trump’s name on a product that others produce better just does not work – especially now. However – judging by his public statements – it was going to be a very different story this time. “I created Truth Social. To resist the tyranny of high technology,” Trump said in October, 10 months after he was permanently banned from Twitter. However, many users, expecting a direct channel to Trump and Trumpist thinking as the former president prepares for a 2024 presidential election, have been deeply disappointed by Truth Social’s experience. An estimated 1.2 million users with the Apple app alone have had long waiting times to access the platform. “Thank you for participating!” reads the Truth Social prompt. “Due to huge demand, we put you on our waiting list.” Even Trump seems to be clear, and has only posted once on the platform. Meanwhile, Digital Word Acquisition Corp., the special acquisition vehicle or Spac, that brings Truth Social to the public is under investigation by the SEC. The deal was expected to reward investors with millions – and Trump himself up to a billion – but the company has now been rocked by a flight of executives. Last week, Josh Adams and Billy Boozer, head of technology and product development at Truth Social, resigned. The Washington Post reported that the resignations came after Trump Media & Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes, a former U.S. lawmaker, tried to get his allies to run the company. Truth Social service issues come as Tesla CEO Elon Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder with a 9.2% stake in the company as well as a board position. Musk, who has had a series of clashes with U.S. financial regulators over financial revelations on social media, has signaled he plans to support changes to the platform, which has 80.4 million followers. Shares on Twitter rose more than 27%. Last month, he asked his followers if Twitter did not adhere to the principles of free speech. “Freedom of speech is essential for a functioning democracy. Do you think Twitter strictly adheres to this principle? ” asked. Responding to more than 2 million users, Musk wrote: “As Twitter operates as the city’s de facto public square, failure to uphold the principles of free speech is fundamentally undermining democracy.” With speculation growing that Musk could use the power of his shareholder and board member to bring Trump back to Twitter, where he had 90 million followers before he was ousted after the January 6 Capitol uprising, the purpose and Truth Social’s fate hangs in the balance. Trump Media & Technology Group, Trump’s adviser last year that he would become a “media force,” initially presented Truth Social as the focus of its ambitions to tackle what the former president usually calls “fake news.” media ”and create a social media presence that he is currently lacking. But, according to the Post, Trump has “cleaned up privately” for the slow adoption and malfunctions of Truth Social and has considered joining rival Gettr. For many reasons, Truth Social may have been a step too far, David Carr told SimilarWeb. The analytics company estimates that Truth Social’s 200,000 daily visitors are 70% oblique men, compared to 1 million for Gettr. Twitter averages 217 million. “In the case of Truth Social, Gettr and Parler had already appeared to serve the same audience as Truth Social,” Carr said. “So it had to be 150% better and so far it has not created much dedication. “If Trump had published a lot of content and there was really a lot of demand for it, maybe things would have been different.” But Truth Social’s apparent failure presents some truths about social media itself. Most users do not come to this, except perhaps Twitter with its relatively low number of users, for political communication. One-sided chats rarely inspire loyalty, and websites require large numbers of users and traffic to have a social impact. “The community management professionals I know often talk about the ’empty party’ problem of how you lead the discussion to a dead end and it’s not easy to solve,” Carr said. At the heart of the issue is what Joshua Tucker, co-director of the NYU Center for Social Media and Policy, calls “network effects.” “Social networking sites are more valuable to you the more people use them. “Like a phone book, it has no value if it has only one name in it,” he said. Part of Truth Social’s problem was that it aimed to exclude much of the political spectrum. “They swallowed the Maga portion of the population, so they started with one hand tied behind their backs,” Tucker said. “It’s a tough sale, even before the traffic and mood issues.” However, Trump has been systematically underestimated in the past, Tucker said, “yet he somehow seems to be quite a failed businessman as an incredibly successful political candidate.” Truth Social was created to deal with what many conservatives ridicule as a “culture annulment” of left-wing censorship. But because of its conservative dominance, Trump’s social networking platform has become a tool for “trolls, self-proclaimed and self-proclaimed experts, conspiracy theorists, those seeking the attention of all sides,” said Mark Federman, of Guelph-Huff University. “Trump’s motive for Truth Social was to … take control of the amplification of his voice. “That failed, so he had to concede defeat.”
