The painful Truth for Trump's investors
Trump's Twitter knockoff is about as successful as everyone except the suckers predicted
There aren’t enough Ls, Os and Ls in the world for this:
After Twitter permanently suspended Trump, the self-proclaimed “Ernest Hemingway of 140 characters” vowed to turn the social media world upside down with a platform of his own. But well more than a year later, his platform has failed to prove it’s ready to cause the kind of disruption he imagined.
Worse, there’s not much public enthusiasm around the current venture. Top figures in Trumpworld are barely using the app — some give the verbal equivalent of a shrug when asked about it — and Trump himself has only posted one “Truth.”
[…]
Truth Social was designed to take on large tech platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter — all of which kicked Trump off their platforms following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. But behind the scenes, many of those close to the former president say they have been left in the dark about the app, its progress, or even who is involved.
And Trump and his immediate circle have shown little public interest in Truth Social. Trump’s inactivity has been a source of frustration among some allies pushing the app. Former first lady Melania Trump is on the app but also announced in February that she will be making another platform, Parler, her “social media home.” There are no verified accounts on Truth Social for the former president’s adult children Donald Jr., Eric, Ivanka or Tiffany, although there are unverified accounts purporting to be them.
Trump was involved in the initial development of the app, which was built by Trump Media and Technology Group, a publicly traded media group that aims to capitalize off Trump’s name with entertainment and social media ventures. During a recent radio interview Trump mused about how he came up with the name “TRUTH.”
But one former Trump adviser said that after being banned from Twitter, Trump has been pleased with the reach he’s gotten with emailed statements that his presidential office and Save America PAC blast to the press.
“I thk him doing the press releases — it hasn’t been that bad of an outlet for him. If he wants to write out a three paragraph scribe where he can go on about any topic, it’s a good outlet for him. They cover it just like they would a tweet,” said the former adviser, who was granted anonymity to talk frankly about Trump’s social media use.
Huh. After the failures of the Trump airline, Trump casinos, Trump magazine, Trump vodka, Trump steaks, the Trump board game, the Trump magazine, Trump mattresses and the Trump Presidency, I figured the Trump social media platform was just the thing to turn this around.
Aside from a Twitter knockoff being redundant in a world where Twitter unfortunately exists, part of the reason Truth Social is floundering is because, oddly enough, it’s too much of a echo chamber:
It’s a lackluster rollout that threatens a long-held dream for some on the right: that an app bolstered by the former president’s star power could jumpstart a social media ecosystem with the same power to amplify conservative voices as AM talk radio or Fox News. And it illustrates one of the great hurdles that conservatives have failed to overcome when trying to launch social media empires of their own: Their followers are eager to argue with the opposition, not necessarily to mingle among the like-minded.
[…]
It’s a difficult market to get into. Meta’s Facebook and Twitter have gigantic user bases, and newer platforms such as Tiktok that have risen in recent years have offered a vastly different type of user experience, rather than just targeting a different audience.
Gettr’s CEO Jason Miller said his app has nearly 5 million users, compared with 2.9 billion on Facebook and 217 million on Twitter. Truth Social has not provided data on how many users are on the app. Waitlist counters put the number of signups at nearly 500,000 on the first two days after its launch, though many of those are still waiting to be let in.
One possible reason for the low user numbers: the echo chamber isn’t really what people want.
As the Republican digital strategist noted, there is less fun in social media when all users share the same political views. “You can’t get ratioed when everyone is on your side,” the strategist said.
You can’t own teh libs when there aren’t any libs around to own. Twitter is basically high school, and what kind of high school doesn’t have outcasts, nerds, weirdoes and Damians whom you can bully into submission?
USENET was the closest thing we had to social media when Private Parts came out, and yet this scene with W-ENNNNN-BC1 executives realizing that people who hate Howard Stern listen even more than his fans, captures the essence of the internet:
Trump will be fine, I’m sure. The man’s ability to find new suckers beggars belief. But anyone else who threw their money down this bottomless pit would have been better off responding to that nice Nigerian fellow’s e-mail messages.
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Paul Giamatti might go on to win a dozen Academy Awards, and yet I’m sure I’ll slip up and call him “Pig Vomit” if I ever meet him.
I don't do social media, but I see stuff like that "whiteness" thread when it shows up somewhere like this. And I've got to say, while I've seen all manner of...well, let's just call them "things"...that's the most pathetic "thing" I've seen thus far. That woman needs...uh...some serious help.