More than a year has passed since President Donald Trump was officially banned from Twitter, YouTube and Facebook following the J6 riot.
But the time for his triumphant return to the political conversation has arrived. After months of building "buzz" and interest, President Trump's new "Truth Social" platform is expected to launch in the Apple app store Monday, coinciding with the President's Day holiday, according to a statement from the company's Chief Product Officer, Billy B.
Comments about the Apple app store release from the "Truth Social" executive were shared on the platform's beta product Sunday, according to Reuters.
In a series of posts late on Friday, a verified account for the network's chief product officer, listed as Billy B., answered questions on the app from people invited to use it during its test phase. One user asked him when the app, which has been available this week for beta testers, would be released to the public, according to screenshots viewed by Reuters.
"We're currently set for release in the Apple App store for Monday Feb. 21," the executive responded.
News and hints about Trump's position on the network have been arriving in a steady stream for weeks. On Feb. 15, Trump's eldest son Donald Jr. posted on a screenshot of his father's verified @realDonaldTrump Truth Social account on Twitter. The post included one message uploaded to his father's Truth Social account on Feb. 14 assuring his audience: "Get Ready! Your favorite President will see you soon!"
Time for some Truth!!! pic.twitter.com/jvyteDb5gW
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 15, 2022
Led by former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, Trump Media & Technology Group - the company responsible for the app - certainly has competition in the area of social media platforms that see themselves as champions of open expression. Some of their bigger rivals include Gettr, Gab, Rumble and Parler.
"There's excitement on our platform right now and it's inspirational. It's honestly very moving to me to see people on the platform who have been canceled," Nunes said, before explaining that this week the app would roll out to iPhone users.
Asked if "Truth Social" would be "beholden to big tech", Nunes responded by insisting that they wouldn't censor anything: "people just want to be left alone...they feel like they're free."
He also clarified that following the app store launch, the product would likely be "fully operational" by the end of March. Reuters affirmed that the app had just been updated to version 1.0, after having been at version 0.9 as recently as Wednesday.
Readers can watch the full Nunes interview below. His comments about "Truth Social" begin at around the 8-minute mark.
On Friday, Nunes was on the app urging users to follow more accounts, share photos and videos and participate in conversations, in an apparent attempt to drum up activity, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
When asked about features of the app, Nunes said that users wouldn't have the ability to edit their posts, which will be called "truths" - at least, "not yet". The next significant feature to be released on the platform would be direct messages, or DMs, between users, the executive wrote.
The SPAC that TMTG will be merging with to finalize its hurried public listing is called DWAC. After the deal, it stands to receive $293M in cash that DWAC holds in a trust, assuming no DWAC shareholder redeems their shares, TMTG said in an Oct. 21 press release. Additionally, in December TMTG raised $1 billion of committed financing from private investors. Unsurprisingly, federal regulators from the the SEC have already revealed that they're looking into the SPAC's financing for evidence of anything suspicious.
Because of this, they say the deal is likely "months away" from closing.
via zerohedge