On Monday morning, Donald Trump defended his alternative social media platform, asserting in a Truth Social post that it is “our voice” and asking his fans to join up.
According to reports, the website has encountered several challenges since its introduction, including accruing a $1.6 million debt, preparing for litigation, and having a trademark registration denied.
The former president, however, asserts that these stories are just an attempt by the media to discredit Truth Social, which he maintains is “completely on cue.”
He cited the 550 percent rise in downloads that occurred in the week after the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago earlier in August as evidence in place. Just three months before the 2022 midterm elections, the search increased the site’s popularity and gave Trump’s followers more confidence.
Additionally, the former president reaffirmed his call for FBI personnel to come forward with information about the raid.
“TRUE VOICE IS OURS!” Sign up right now. At 2:08 a.m. on Monday, Trump posted on Truth Social.
How Truth Social has had several issues since its inception
Trump’s app was developed after he was permanently barred from Twitter as a result of the January 6, 2021 Capitol assault and released in the Apple Store in February 2022.
It is marketed as a social media site alternative to major internet platforms like Twitter and Facebook that provides a free speech platform without censoring or disparaging diverse viewpoints.
In the first two weeks after the official debut on February 21, there were around 2 million downloads on the US Apple App Store.
However, lengthy wait times to access the site and frequent disruptions caused a decline in downloads, prompting opponents to call it a “disaster.”
When users who had been waiting months for access to the app finally received it, downloads resumed in late April.
Federal investigators are looking into whether the holding firm improperly collaborated with the Trump Media & Technology Group, adding to the site’s legal woes.
Others claim that the website serves as a forum for far-right extremists.
Devin Nunes’ Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which supports conservative organisations and is run by RightForge, has an agreement to host Truth Social on their platform.
Trump’s application for Truth Social was denied by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which determined that two other businesses had names that are similar to Trump’s and that the trademark issuance would increase the “risk of confusion.”
The company’s name, True Social, an app-based social networking platform, and the Truth Network, a Christian radio broadcast network, were deemed too similar to Vero by the patent office.
“The dominating phrasing TRUTH and TRUE express the same concept of being honest or stressing reality when networking socially,” they claimed in their filing.
Additionally, both marks also include the term “social,” which makes them largely identical in appearance and sound but for a little variance in the word “truth,” according to the office.
Due to the potential of misunderstanding arising from the marks’ similarity and the relationship between the products and services, registration is denied in accordance with Section 2(d) of the Trademark Act.
The filing has until February 2023 for Trump to reply.
According to three individuals with knowledge of the case, Trump’s IT business has accrued a sizable debt sheet and has not paid any of its regular monthly payments to web hosting provider RightForce since March.
According to Fox Business, RightForge is now planning to file a lawsuit.
Martin Avila, the chief executive of RightForge, said in a statement that “our founding ambition is to establish a second internet to promote American ideals online,” but he chose not to address the specifics of the allegations.
RightForge declares its “belief in the purpose of President Trump’s free speech platform” and its “want to continue helping the president in his media activities.”
Requests for response from Truth Social were not answered.
On Saturday afternoon, Trump declared: “The Fake News Media is horrified by how well TRUTH is doing thus, right on cue, they are working hard to condemn and demonise it.”
Actually, many of Washington, D.C.’s power players are attempting to thwart the TRUTH, but they will fail, he maintained. They are pursuing the outside financial firm and almost everyone who lives and breathes, but that won’t make them comply.
They claimed that it has performed worse after the Raid, but in actuality, it has improved MUCH more than 550%. We all like the truth!
The website was started in February to provide the former president a voice after he was banned from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube after the assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
Since then, he has made frequent comments on the midterm elections, Joe Biden’s speech, and the raid on his Florida home.
It hasn’t been successful in attracting a sizable audience, and its statistics fall well short of those of well-known websites like Twitter, Facebook, and even the extreme-right site Gab, which attracts tens of millions of users each month.
It also encountered a number of early technological problems that significantly hampered download and user rates, such as lengthy access wait times.
Some business experts note out that Android phone users, who are more likely to be Trump supporters than iPhone users, are still unable to access it.
However, the way the firm is set up can be much more troublesome.
TMTG, a holding company with long-term plans to enter the streaming and other internet services markets, owns a portion of Truth Social.
However, the company’s ambitions to go public by combining with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a SPAC, have been put on hold indefinitely.
Due to concerns that the two businesses may have violated merger regulations, the Securities and Exchange Commission and a Justice Department grand jury have both opened investigations.
Both businesses claim they are helping with the investigations.
Trump himself is dealing with a number of legal issues.
As the Department of Justice looks into the removal of hundreds of papers from the White House after Trump left office, FBI investigators most recently discovered boxes of secret documents in his Florida property.