The company behind Donald Trump’s alt-right social media platform, Truth Social, made its stock market debut last week.
Its parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, merged with Digital World Acquisition Corp. and began trading under the ticker DJT on Tuesday. The company’s market valuation hit as much as $13 billion on one measure, with small investors powering the surge.
The deal has made Trump a whole lot richer, but several experts warned the company is hugely overvalued.
I decided to take a day-long visit its core platform, Truth Social, to see what goes on.
Trump’s ‘Truthsayers’
I signed up without a problem and was welcomed as a “Truthsayer.”
After opening the app, I was greeted with the platform’s “Trending Topics” of the day — “#Truth,” “#NBC,” “#MAGA,” and “#Trump2024.” Before even opening my main feed, I had an idea of what I might be in for.
The layout of Truth Social is pretty standard; the main feed follows a similar structure to Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter. My feeds were split into three tabs: “following,” “for you,” and “groups.”
My “for you” page was dominated by right-wing influencers, including Libs of TikTok and Trump himself. It was also littered with posts, memes, and videos supporting the former president.
Like most platforms, Truth Social was populated by the big stories of the week, including the collapse of the Baltimore Bridge. However, some “Truthsayers” had a more unique take on the mass causality event.
“Is there a better encapsulation of Biden’s America,” one Truther mused in a post that shared a video of a ship colliding with the bridge.
Conspiracy theories
Another key feature of my “for you” feed was fierce hatred of President Joe Biden.
I clocked at least 10 anti-Biden posts in my first few minutes scrolling the app.
“Today is March 28th, and Joe Biden is the WORST president in US history,” one user posted, seemingly without much context.
“Biden, certified imbecile,” another read, sharing a link to the conservative news and politics site RedState.
Most of the content on Truth Social is highly political, and my feed was littered with fellow “Truthsayers” spouting conspiracy theories. Almost all the news articles shared by users were from conservative outlets such as the Washington Examiner.
News events, such as the collapse of the Baltimore Bridge, were often used as springboards for political commentary. One user linked the bridge — along with recent aviation issues — to the debate around the problems supposed caused by diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
Amateur production
Truth Social is still a relatively new platform — and it shows. First launched in February 2022, it’s been facing financial and regulatory issues for most of its existence.
It hosted around five million active members as of February according to research firm Similarweb, CBS News reported.
The platform still feels like an amateur production when compared to its more established rivals. It has a busy layout and is populated by strange sponsored ads.
Overall, I won’t be running back.
Unless you have a burning desire to fill your days with overly political content, Truth Social might not be the social media platform for you.
The post I spent a day as a ‘Truthsayer’ on Truth Social — it was a bizarre mix of conspiracy theories and Biden-hate appeared first on Business Insider.
