It looks like Donald Trump's social media app, Truth Social, is having a rather controversial start.
Truth Social, the new social media platform in town, was recently reported to be already plagued with issues ranging from signup problems to even users geting banned or waitlisted, per Mashable.
The app functions and looks similar to Twitter, where users can create profiles to post and share a "truth" just like they would a tweet. They can also follow other users and "curate 'Truth Feeds.'" It is also advertised as a social media app that is "free from political discrimination" and is open to anyone in the world.
However, that advertisement was put to the test when numerous people eager to try the app were waitlisted to limit the number of users on the app's first day. Meanwhile, those not waitlisted had difficulty completing the two-factor authentication needed to confirm their profiles due to the app requiring an active phone number or email address as a means of verification.
The waitlist was due to a technical difficulty--a "partial outage" for 7 hours and 40 minutes, Business Insider reports. According to the text of Truth Social's status page at the time, the app is online, but user creation is "rate-limited" at the time during the app's rollout. It then added that the app would "expand capacity over the coming hours to enable more users to join Truth Social."
"Freedom" of Speech
This is censorship. pic.twitter.com/Ih6odqlsJh
— Matt Ortega (@MattOrtega) February 22, 2022
In addition to these issues, being waitlisted does not mean a guarantee to get into the app, as web developer Matt Ortega discovered.
A separate Mashable article reported that Ortega was banned from Trump's social media app out of nowhere due to his username being defamatory to a former Republican representative, Devin Nunes.
Ortega stated that his account name was referencing an Esquire report that mentioned Nunes owning a dairy farm in Iowa, something they kept a secret from the public.
Read more : New Twitter Feature Will Allow Users to Leave Conversation, Truth Social Hits No. 1 in App Store Chart
Nunes is currently the CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group, the company operating Truth Social.
Why Trump Media & Technology Group banned Ortega isn't exactly a mystery. The app's Terms of Service (TOS) states that Truth Social app users are prohibited to "disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the Site."
Simply put, users aren't allowed to talk badly about the app and the people running Trump Media & Technology Group.
Truth Social's Connections to China
Ironically, TMTG has some indirect connections with China through one of the members of its management team and a special purpose acquisition company.
Documents from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed by a Meidas Touch News' tweet states that TMTG is backed by Patrick Orlando, the CEO of Yunhong International and Digital World Acquisition Corp, the company that merged with Trump's TMTG, per TIME's report on the topic.
According to the Chinese financial and investment website Money DJ, Yunhong International is a "blank check company" that engages in mergers and securities transactions, asset acquisitions and stock purchases, according to Newsweek.
Whether Orlando has a say on how TMTG and Truth Social should be operated remains to be seen.
China was seen as Trump's enemy during his time as U.S. President. At the time, Trump waged a trade war that saw Huawei and other tech companies get deprived of technologies usually sourced from the U.S., which is the reason why Huawei created HarmonyOS as a replacement for Google Android, as mentioned in an Arstechnica news.
