Former U.S. President Donald Trump's long-touted social media platform, Truth Social, is apparently set to launch on iOS next month. According to a recently uncovered listing of the app on Apple's App Store, Truth Social will be available to download on Feb. 21 - on President's Day, coincidentally.
Trump previously said that he would be launching his own social media platform following disputes with Twitter and Facebook over his controversial posts. Based on initial information and screenshots found on the App Store listing, Truth Social looks to be like a Twitter clone.
In one screenshot on the listing, a user's profile page on the social media platform looks exactly like profiles found on Twitter. This includes posts with buttons for faves, share, reply, and retweets - or "re-truth" in Trump's platform's case. Truth Social labels each post as a "truth" instead of a tweet.
The platform's similarity to Twitter is likely intentional as Trump had used the popular social media platform as his personal megaphone throughout his political career. Due to his wave of controversial tweets, Trump's account was eventually banned in January 2021. Trump's tweets were alleged to have fueled the Jan. 6 riot on the U.S. Capitol.
A few months after he was banned, Trump began to Twitter-like comments and posts on his own blog. However, the website didn't get as much attention and engagement as his Twitter profile. The website was eventually shut down less than a month after it was launched.
In October, Trump formally filed a lawsuit against Twitter in a last-ditch effort to get his account back online.
Trump's Truth Social app is being developed by Trump's social media company, Trump Media and Technology Group. The company is being led by former U.S. Representative Devin Nunes.
It's not yet clear when Truth Social will be available on the web or Android. For now, there is only a button to preorder the free app on the App Store and a form to join a waiting list if you go to Truth Social's website right now.
Trump said in a December statement announcing TMTG's relationship with the video-sharing site Rumble, which would offer video and streaming technologies for Truth Social, that Truth Social had already started in beta for invited visitors.
Even before its launch, Truth Social has already struggled with some issues. Truth Social is based on Mastodon's source code. However, Mastodon issued a statement in October claiming that Truth Social was in breach of Mastodon's software agreement since it claimed to be proprietary.
