Trump's New Social Media Platform

[AnBr]

Could face legal issues after allegedly ripping off code

Before his stint as ruler of the free world, former President Donald Trump made a fortune slapping his name on buildings other people had built.

Now, he's being accused of doing the same thing with his social media platform.

Users who were able to access and create accounts on a beta version of Trump's "TRUTH Social" through a backdoor immediately noticed that it bore an uncanny resemblance to Mastodon, an alternative social network known for its focus on privacy and "free speech" values.

The company's founder and lead developer, Eugen Rochko, pointed out to VICE News' Motherboard that the error message on Trump's new social platform used his site's elephant mascot. In fact, one user even snapped a screenshot of the site's HTML code that explicitly mentioned Mastodon, leading many to surmise that it had lifted the company's code directly.

[andydp]

Some investors have other ideas about the Trump/Truth SPAC

‘Makes Me Want to Throw Up’: Key Investors Pull Out of New Trump Social Media Company Over ‘Values’

On Wednesday evening we reported that Donald Trump announced that he was starting a new social media platform but for the first time, of which we’re aware, it was to be a corporation partly owned by shareholders (of which he would be a major one) and largely financed through market capitalization. It was a radical departure from his normal and usual way of doing business but likely this was his only option due to his lack of liquidity.

Now, at least two of the major shareholders are pulling out of the investment because they were unaware of the fact that Trump was driving the train.

As Mazza reports, “Boaz Weinstein’s Saba Capital had been a major investor in Digital World, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) formed for the purpose of acquiring another company. As is common in SPAC arrangements, investors put their cash in before the acquisition target was chosen. When Weinstein learned it would be with Trump’s firm, he bailed.”

Another unnamed investor, who reportedly held a 10 percent stake in the company, was considerably more graphic when talking about being taken in by Trump’s latest venture and he “sold everything as soon as he could,” reports Mazza.

“The idea that I would help Trump build out a fake news business called Truth makes me want to throw up,”

Not everyone is disgusted.  Following along the lines of Gordon Gekko:

Trump plan for new media venture gets investors’ thumbs up

www.wearegreenbay.com/news/national/trump-announces-launch-of-his-very-own-social-media-site/

[andydp]

Pres Trump has called his new social media site “Truth Social”. Adding to the irony, “Pravda”, the name of the official USSR Communist Party Newspaper, translates to “truth”.

[LFC]

Oct 24, 2021 0:45:31 GMT AnBr said:

Could face legal issues after allegedly ripping off code

Before his stint as ruler of the free world, former President Donald Trump made a fortune slapping his name on buildings other people had built.

Now, he's being accused of doing the same thing with his social media platform.

Users who were able to access and create accounts on a beta version of Trump's "TRUTH Social" through a backdoor immediately noticed that it bore an uncanny resemblance to Mastodon, an alternative social network known for its focus on privacy and "free speech" values.

The company's founder and lead developer, Eugen Rochko, pointed out to VICE News' Motherboard that the error message on Trump's new social platform used his site's elephant mascot. In fact, one user even snapped a screenshot of the site's HTML code that explicitly mentioned Mastodon, leading many to surmise that it had lifted the company's code directly.

A Trump venture violating a contract in a spectacularly obvious and incompetent way? I'm shocked, shocked I say!

[andydp]

This just in from David Nunes' cow chip factory...


Trump raging at aides as his Truth Social flounders: report

"In recent weeks, sources have heard the former president on the phone swearing gratuitously and asking things like, 'What the f*ck is going on' with Truth Social," the report states. "He’s repeatedly groused about the negative press and the less-than-stellar optics of the rollout, these sources said. And he’s demanded to know why more people aren’t using it—why the app isn’t swiftly dominating the competition."

"The Daily Beast reviewed analyses of visits to Truth Social’s performed by SimilarWeb, which tracks website traffic from public and private sources. The company’s figures for the MAGA social network—while only an estimate based on incomplete data—are nonetheless anemic," the report states. "SimilarWeb’s estimates show a sharp spike of around 2 million daily visits to the site when it first debuted, before traffic dipped to an average of approximately 300,000 visits each day, putting the site on par with Gettr. Meanwhile, the far-right Gab has averaged around 650,000 daily average visits in the same time period."


www.rawstory.com/trump-2656848573/?fbclid=IwAR3MylkX5xfe9MikjnWnw-cZXkZhWvT3aSZGMhuP7WvBeF0EYHa8Q_15WWk

[goldenvalley]

Mar 8, 2022 19:37:38 GMT andydp said:

This just in from David Nunes' cow chip factory...


Trump raging at aides as his Truth Social flounders: report

Raise your hand if you are surprised by this.  My hand is down.

[andydp]

One more notch on the schadenfreude meter....

A far-right figure is already accusing Trump’s Truth Social of censoring him

Far-right figures are already claiming to have experienced "censorship" on Truth Social, the social media platform launched on Monday by former President Donald Trump.

Stew Peters, a prominent conspiracy theorist and radio host, lashed out at the new app in a statement on Telegram after he said a post he made was covered by a "sensitive content" notice.

 www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-far-right-figure-is-already-accusing-trumps-truth-social-of-censoring-him/ar-AAUb6Wf

[LFC]

It looks like Trump has already lost interest in his latest business venture.

By all accounts, former President Donald Trump's Truth Social app is a flop -- and it's not helped by the fact that Trump himself never uses it.

As noted by pollster Frank Luntz, Trump posted on Truth Social exactly one month ago when he wrote, "Get Ready! Your favorite President will see you soon!"

Since then, however, Trump has not used the service once and has instead drawn attention to himself by emailing out statements to reporters.

[pnwguy]

Mar 21, 2022 21:25:19 GMT LFC said:

It looks like Trump has already lost interest in his latest business venture.

By all accounts, former President Donald Trump's Truth Social app is a flop -- and it's not helped by the fact that Trump himself never uses it.

As noted by pollster Frank Luntz, Trump posted on Truth Social exactly one month ago when he wrote, "Get Ready! Your favorite President will see you soon!"

Since then, however, Trump has not used the service once and has instead drawn attention to himself by emailing out statements to reporters.

It's probably safe to assume that he has no personal money at stake in the project.  

[goldenvalley]

Mar 21, 2022 23:41:54 GMT pnwguy said:

Mar 21, 2022 21:25:19 GMT LFC said:

It looks like Trump has already lost interest in his latest business venture.

It's probably safe to assume that he has no personal money at stake in the project.  

Or he already got his cut at start up.

[LFC]

Truth Social's backing has been revealed.

Since the Donald Trump-founded social media platform, Truth Social, launched in February, the site’s financial origins have been cloaked in a layer of mystery. The company secured a reported $1 billion in funding, but that money remains inaccessible pending a successful public launch. In the interim, Trump’s media venture has pulled together about $38 million in debt, according to SEC filings, and that money didn’t come from Trump himself. So, who provided it?

Finally, we have some answers, according to a report from Reuters. An oil tycoon with political ties, former Trump appointees and staff sycophants, and your generic rich business owners pooled their resources together.

Here are some of the major Truth investors, according to those filings, as first reported by Reuters:

• Karl Pfluger, president of the Texas oil company Oryx Midstream and brother of Congressman August Pfluger, has put nearly $10 million towards Truth social since December 2021. Rep. Pfluger has been an outspoken supporter and endorsee of Trump. He was one of the many politicians who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election, and just recently started receiving fundraising dollars from Amazon’s corporate PAC.

• Patrick Walsh, CEO of Empire Holdings—a company that manages multiple gym brands—has invested $6.2 million with Truth.

• Kenny Troutt, a Texas telecoms billionaire who has donated to Trump before, forked over $4 million for Truth.

• Roy Bailey, the co-finance chairman for Trump’s 2016 election campaign and later a lobbyist for the administration, gave at least $200,000 towards Truth.

• George Glass, a real-estate developer from Oregon who was appointed to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to Portugal during Trump’s presidency, dumped in at least half a million.

• Bob McNutt, fittingly the CEO of a mail-order fruitcake company, made a modest $100,000 contribution to Trump’s social media platform.

Obviously, that still leaves about $10 million unaccounted for. According to Reuters, Wilkerson’s whistleblower documents contained about $9.4 million in promissory notes that the outlet couldn’t identify the origins of.