The IT Nerd

Last week I posted a story that the Donald Trump owned social network Truth Social may be about to die if it didn’t get the support of the majority of their shareholders to either close or extend a merger with a Miami-based company called Digital World Acquisition.

Well, they got that extension apparently:  

Shareholders voted to grant DWAC (DWAC) another year to pull off its merger with Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, according to an SEC document posted Wednesday. The groups now have until September 8, 2024 to combine.

The extension was approved by about 72% of stockholders, according to a regulatory filingWednesday.

Even though this is good news for Truth Social, it doesn’t solve the fact that this social network has been a train wreck next to a dumpster fire since it launched. And even Donald Trump who himself is a frequent poster on Truth Social has posted on Twitter as of late as part of his grifting attempts to say that his is innocent of all the various criminal charges that he is facing. Thus one has to wonder how much longer Truth Social has to live.

Truth Social, which is the social network that Donald Trump created after he was tossed off Twitter has been a dumpster fire since the second that it was announced. The latest crisis could spell doom for Truth Social according to The Washington Post.

Here’s the TL:DR:

According to the Washington Post, there is a September 8 deadline for a merger with a Miami-based company called Digital World Acquisition to close or be extended. Should that merger fail, Truth Social will be forced by law to return $300 million to investors. And Donald Trump will end up with “nothing” in financial gain. I wrote about this merger here.

The Washington Post report reveals that Truth Social has been plagued by unceremonious executive departures, credible accusations of insider trading, and even a whopping $18 million settlement over accusations that Truth Social executives lies to investors and the Securities and Exchange Commission. I wrote about some of that here.

Like I said, it’s been a dumpster fire. And it is another illustration of how bad a businessman that Trump is. Because everything he touches dies. And what doesn’t help is the fact that Trump made a re-appearance on Twitter by posting his mug shot and typing the words “Never Surrender”. Which is an odd thing for a guy who has surrendered to authorities four times in the last little while.

I’ll be watching on Friday to see if Truth Social lives or dies. I’m going to go with Truth Social dying. But I am free to surprised.

Forbes is reporting that Donald Trump’s legal defence fund website which is called the Patriot Legal Defence Fund has been pwned by unknown hackers. From Forbes:

The Patriot Legal Defense Fund website, seemingly established to support aides and employees of former President Donald Trump with their rapidly increasing legal expenses, has been hacked. The home page has been defaced to strike through Trump’s name and add an “America Is Already Great!” strapline. But the hacker has altered far more than just the banner.

As first reported by Raw Story, the Patriot Legal Defense Fund website defacement was apparently hacked late on Friday, August 18. At the time of publication, the site remains up and is still defaced.

Seriously? This site has been pwned since last Friday and they haven’t taken it down? I’m not kidding. If you go there right now by clicking here, you can see for yourself. That suggests to me that whomever is behind the site has lost control of it.

What losers.

This highlights the fact that the people behind Trump’s digital media strategy are not that bright. But given how much of a gong show Truth Social’s launch was, nobody should be surprised. And it underscores that everything that Trump touches, goes off the rails and becomes a train wreck next to a dumpster fire.

I haven’t written about Truth Social in a while, but I see that it continues to not be a success. I base that on the fact that Reuters is reporting about the departure of two key execs:

The two Southern tech entrepreneurs had the two qualities that Donald Trump’s Truth Social startup needed: tech-industry expertise and a politically conservative worldview aligned with the former president, a rare combination in the liberal-leaning industry centered in San Francisco.

Josh Adams and Billy Boozer – the company’s chiefs of technology and product development – joined the venture last year and quickly became central players in its bid to build a social-media empire, backed by Trump’s powerful brand, to counter what many conservatives deride as “cancel culture” censorship from the left.

Less than a year later, both have resigned their senior posts at a critical juncture for the company’s smartphone-app release plans, according to two sources familiar with the venture.

The departures followed the troubled launch of the company’s iPhone app on Feb. 20. Weeks later, many users remain on a waiting list, unable to access the platform. Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) Chief Executive Devin Nunes, a former Republican congressman, said publicly that the company aimed to make the app fully operational within the United States by the end of March.

That’s not all. It also seems that the parent company behind Truth Social is downsizing staff:

Trump Media & Technology Group, Truth Social’s parent company, laid off about half a dozen people, including senior members of its ranks, such as Chief Technology Officer William “BJ” Lawson, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Lawson was the third person to hold the role at the company. Some close to Trump Media estimate it can fund operations through September at present spending levels, according to the people. 

It also doesn’t help that the company is still trying to get their merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp. approved by regulators. At this point, you have to wonder how much longer Truth Social will be around. It honestly sounds like they’re on borrowed time. And you have to wonder if Trump’s legal issues will hasten its demise. Or perhaps give it a new life as that’s a safe space for those who believe in Trump.

Watch this space.

Truth Social which is Donald Trump’s social media platform, which as of late has a number of challenges facing it, has only been available on iOS since they launched. People, including. yours truly have wondered why it’s not available to Android uses. This report answers that question:

“On August 19, we notified Truth Social of several violations of standard policies in their current app submission and reiterated that having effective systems for moderating user-generated content is a condition of our terms of service for any app to go live on Google Play,” Google said in a statement to media.

And:

A source told Axios that the violations Google referred to “relate to content such as physical threats and incitements to violence.”

Google did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

I have to admit that I am puzzled by this as Apple approved this app and has been known to take apps off the App Store for similar reasons. Like this incident for example. Thus I have to ask, why is Apple allowing Truth Social on the App Store, but Google isn’t allowing it on the Play Store?

Inquiring minds want to know the answer to that question.

The clown show that is Donald Trump’s Truth Social continues with news that users are being punted from the site if they talk about the January 6th insurrection. Which goes against the platform’s promise of free speech:

The irony is rich: Truth Social, Donald Trump’s Twitter copycat claiming it is “free from political discrimination,” has reportedly banned users who posted information from Thursday’s congressional hearing on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — in which the former president is a key focus.

That’s according to several posts on Twitter by users who claimed Truth Social was censoring them. Reps for Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns and operates Truth Social, did not respond to a request for comment.

Travis Allen, whose Twitter bio describes him as an information security analyst, on Thursday evening posted a screenshot from the Truth Social app that said “Account suspended,” and he wrote: “My Truth Social account was just permanently suspended for talking about the January 6th Committee hearings.”

He added, “So much for ‘free speech.’ This is censorship!” Allen did not provide details about what allegedly led to Truth Social kicking him off the platform.

While it is their right to punt people from the platform that violate their terms of service, it seems that Donald Trump and his lackeys are afraid of free speech. And they just want their own view of the universe on the Truth Social platform. Talk about being a bunch of snowflakes. This is yet another reason why this platform will simply crash and burn. And I think Trump and company are aware of that:

As of March 31, 2022, Trump Media & Technology Group had not generated any revenue to date and has warned investors that “TMTG may never generate any operating revenues or ever achieve profitable operations.” Sarasota, Fla.-based TMTG had approximately 40 full-time employees as of the end of March, per a regulatory filing by Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that intends to merge with TMTG.

What this means is that these snowflakes will be out of business sooner or later. Which means that Truth Social will be a very minor footnote in history as a result.

Not that I am surprised by this, but according to The BBC, Donald Trump’s attempt to create a social network of his own after being thrown off of every other social network on the planet has been branded a “disaster”:

Truth Social might look like Twitter, but it isn’t available on Android phones, web browsers or, apparently, to most people outside the US. And a Republican ally of Mr Trump’s, who did not wish to be identified, said: “Nobody seems to know what’s going on.” On 21 February, Truth Social was one of the App Store’s most downloaded apps — but many who downloaded it were unable to use it. There was an assumption this problem would soon be resolved and Mr Trump would start posting his “truths” in the coming days — but neither of those things happened. My attempt to register, this week, was placed at number 1,419,631 on the waiting list. 

While YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook are among the 10 most downloaded apps, according to Similar Web, Truth Social is outside the top 100. Users who find their way in can find the app a little empty, as many big voices on the American right have so far stayed away. Another study found downloads have fallen by as much as 95%. And many are feeling frustrated. “Signed up for Truth Social a couple weeks ago and still on a waiting list,” one Twitter user said, on Tuesday. “By the time I’m off the waiting list and on to Truth Social for real, Trump will be President again,” joked another.

And why aren’t things working? Here’s a big hint:

Truth Social chief executive Devin Nunes said its goal was to be “fully operational” by the end of March. 

But quite why the app is having so many problems has baffled experts. 

Some have pointed to Truth Social’s partnership with Rumble, a video-sharing platform that looks a bit like YouTube.

Popular with conservatives and the far right, Rumble was supposed to provide a “critical backbone” for the site’s infrastructure. 

But if Truth Social is having server problems, why has it taken so long to fix? 

“It should take a few days to fix, not six weeks,” a Republican source close to Mr Trump said. 

“There’s always going to be hiccups at the beginning – but at this point, I would have thought it would have been resolved. 

“Nobody seems to understand why.”

I can take a guess. The people behind Truth Social are in way over their heads and have no clue how to fix this and get things operational. So it sits there and acts as a pretty big source of embarrassment for Trump as a result. One wonders how long it will be before Trump gets fed up, burns it to the ground and pretends it never existed. Because there seems to be no light at the end of this tunnel for Trump.

Assuming that you were one of the few who were able to get into former President Donald Trump’s social network known as Truth Social, you might have a new problem that is different than trying and failing to register and/or being put on a waitlist of hundreds of thousands of people. You might get banned or censored if you say the wrong thing.

Take Matt Ortega who is a bit of a prankster. He tried to register DevinNunesCow on Truth Social. Devin Nunes is the CEO of the company behind this gong show of a social media network. And he was also a congressman who loved to be a cheerleader for Trump. But he also has very thin skin who tried to sue a pair of parody Twitter accounts who were trolling him. Namely Devin Nunes’ Mom and Devin Nunes’ Cow. Those lawsuits didn’t go Nunes way, and clearly Truth Social doesn’t want him to be trolled. Which is why Ortega likely had this happen to him:

That’s kind of funny. But this isn’t.

If you click the graphic, you will see the following:

You can find some basic facts about Stew Peters here. But here’s what you need to know. He’s an anti-vaxxer with some…. extreme views of the universe.

Both of these events go against the pledge that Truth Social’s pledge to be censorship free. But there was zero chance that Truth Social was ever going to be censorship free. The simple fact is that Truth Social currently has no web interface like Twitter or Facebook do. Thus they are totally reliant on apps. Or app seeing as they are only on the Apple App Store at the moment. And the App Store along with Google Play have rules that say that if you have content that violates their terms of service, your app get punted. Just ask Parler what that means. So Truth Social has to do some sort of moderation, aka censorship, or get banned out of existence very quickly. The DevinNunesCow thing is just Truth Social’s CEO not being able to take being trolled. But the Stew Peters thing is about the survival of Truth Social for something longer than 60 seconds. Thus if Trump supporters were hoping that they were going to find a place where they could yell into their echo chamber with their “views” of the universe, it’s not happening on Truth Social.

The rather shambolic launch of former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social has taken another turn. It’s now come to light that the logo is similar to a logo for a UK company called Trailar. A seller of truck solar panels. You can guess what happened next:

Matthew Summers, head of marketing at Trailer, confirmed to Insider on Tuesday that the company was considering legal action against Truth Social because of the similarity of the two logos.

Summers had earlier told The Daily Beast: “We are now seeking legal advice to understand next steps and options available to protect our brand.”

For reference, here’s the two logos side by side:

More than a passing resemblance. No?

It will be interesting to see how Trump and company respond to this lawsuit when it gets filed. Regardless, Truth Social is not off to a great start.

You might recall that Donald Trump was trying to launch a social media site, and ignoring the fact that it was almost immediately pwned by hackers, it used code from a open source code from a social media platform called Mastodon improperly. Which then led to threats of a lawsuit. It now seems Trump and company are now trying to quietly avoid being sued:

To avoid a lawsuit, Donald Trump’s social media site is quietly acknowledging the computer code powering the platform comes from Mastodon. Trump’s “Truth Social” site now features a dedicated section labeled “open source,” which contains a Zip archive to Mastodon’s source code. “Our goal is to support the open source community no matter what your political beliefs are. That’s why the first place we go to find amazing software is the community and not ‘Big Tech,'” the site adds. Truth Social created the section on Nov. 12, two weeks after social networking provider Mastodon threatened to sue Trump’s platform for violating its open-source license. 

Since Mastodon is an open-source software project, anyone can use it for free. But if you do, the software license demands the code and any ensuing modifications to your Mastodon-powered platform be made publicly available, allowing the entire Mastodon community to benefit. (This doesn’t include publishing any user data or disclosing admin access, though.) […] However, it appears the uploaded Zip archive is simply a barebones version of the existing Mastodon source code you can already find on GitHub. The archive itself is only a mere 30MB in size. Nevertheless, Rochko said the Zip archive might “become more interesting” once Truth Social finally launches.

I seriously doubt that it will get more interesting because these humans clearly have no clue what they are doing. One just cannot spin up a social media site out of thin air as that’s something that takes the Facebook’s and Twitter’s of the world years to do. Take my word for it, this site is unlikely to see the light of day. And even if it does, it is likely to be a train wreck next to a dumpster fire.