Truth Social, the alternative social media platform backed by former President Donald Trump, was supposed to be “fully operational” by the end of March, according to its parent company’s CEO, former Rep. Devin Nunes.
But as March has come and gone, Nunes’ prediction that “anyone” would be able to get on Truth Social “within the United States at any time” appears to have fallen flat. The app itself remains plagued by issues including a lengthy waitlist and a lack of content.
Truth Social and Trump Media and Technology Group, the app’s parent, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
After hitting the top of app store rankings at its official launch on Presidents’ Day, Truth Social has fallen to 35th place among social networking apps, according to data from the market research firm SensorTower. The Twitter clone has frustrated many would-be users, some of whom have taken to the iOS App Store to complain. (Truth Social still does not appear to offer a version for Android devices on Google’s official app store.)
“Been on the wait list with a registered username since launch day,” one reviewer wrote on Truth Social’s download page last week. “Not super thrilled about how my voice cannot be heard after the promises made.”
One test account created by CNN also remains on the waitlist of hundreds of thousands, though another CNN test account was granted access to the platform in mid-March.
Trump himself has been notably silent on Truth Social. He posted a single “truth” in February encouraging his supporters to “Get Ready! Your favorite President will see you soon!” But he has not posted since. Compared to Twitter — where Trump had 88.3 million followers right before he was banned in 2021 — the former president had just 835,000 followers on Truth Social as of early April.
In an apparent effort to generate content, Truth Social also seems to have created automated accounts that imply they represent major brands, but the connections may be more tenuous than at first glance.
A section of the app lists a number of recommended profiles for users to follow, including @NFL, @NASCAR, @NASA and even @wallstreetbets, the Reddit community that helped drive meme stocks into the national conversation last year.
Despite carrying the logos and handles of those entities, however, the profiles are often little more than automated feeds for unaffiliated content. A button at the top of the profiles identifies them as bots, and tapping the button brings up a message advising users that the official-sounding accounts simply pull in content from third-party RSS feeds and are “not managed by or affiliated with the referenced news outlet.”
The NASCAR account, for example, does not post original content but instead automatically posts links to stories on motorsport.com; @NASA does the same for stories on space.com, while the @NFL account posts links to espn.com.
It is unclear whether many of the named organizations have had a role in managing the accounts or were even aware of the profiles using their names and logos on the new app. Spokespeople for NASA and NASCAR didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
“This is not affiliated with the NFL,” Brian McCarthy, a spokesperson for the National Football League, told CNN when asked about the account. “We will decline comment.”
A spokesperson for the official wallstreetbets community on Reddit told CNN that Truth Social “proactively reached out to us letting us know that they were running the account as an RSS feed under our subreddit name.”
Truth Social “offered to hand over the account in case we wanted to run it ourselves, which we appreciated but ultimately declined,” the spokesperson continued. “We appreciate their proactive approach, but a core tenet of our community is remaining apolitical.”
Apart from an apparent dearth of content, Truth Social has acknowledged some struggles with technical issues.
In emails sent to waitlist registrants last month, Truth Social promised that its teams were “working around the clock to allow everyone to join us as quickly as possible,” emphasizing that a “phased rollout allows us to identify and remedy errors in real time as we onboard new users.”
Welcome emails bringing people off of the waitlist have been quick to remind users that “we are a new platform, and we are still fixing many bugs in our technology,” and that the company is “working as hard as we can to make things better as fast as possible.”
On Monday, however, a Reuters report suggested Truth Social may be having trouble retaining talent. The news outlet, citing unnamed sources, reported that the app’s chief technology officer and head of product development had quit the company.
Amid the ongoing issues, shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp. — the special-purpose acquisition company that intends to turn Truth Social’s parent into a publicly traded firm — have fallen 35% since the days following the app’s launch.
Clare Duffy contributed to this report.
