Trump's Truth Social App Won't Survive Sans Apple, Google

With just weeks to go before its launch, Donald Trump’s new media venture is trying to strike a delicate balance with its app: Giving Trump's base the freedom to express themselves, without running afoul of Apple and Google’s app store policies, Julia Love and Helen Coster reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: The launch of Truth Social comes a year after the former US president was banned from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

The launch of Truth Social comes a year after the former US president was banned from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. It will be a major test of whether Trump Media & Technology Group and other tech companies that describe themselves as champions of free speech can scale alongside the Silicon Valley gatekeepers that conservatives have accused of squelching free expression.

TMTG has pledged to deliver an “engaging and censorship-free experience” on its Truth Social app, appealing to a base that feels its views around such hot-button topics in American life as vaccines and the outcome of the 2020 presidential election have been scrubbed from mainstream tech platforms.

Yet, Trump’s tech team must erect guard rails to ensure Truth Social does not get kicked out of the app stores run by Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google - a fate that befell popular conservative app Parler in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riots in the US Capitol.

Without these stores, there is no easy way for most smartphone users to download the app. The risk of such “de-platforming” is a top priority for TMTG Chief Executive Devin Nunes, a former GOP congressman, as his team builds the app.

Recognizing that the app will be a major target for hackers from day one, Nunes wants to have cyber talent at the “nation-state level,” one of the people said. Nunes has said publicly that the company’s goal is to launch its Truth Social app by the end of March.

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