It hasn’t been a good few days for Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform after it was accused of not paying its bills and then encouraging extremism online.
Now a crucial part of its potential expansion is being denied – Google’s Play Store has refused to allow the app to be listed due to violations in policy.
Hot on the heels of the news that high level people at the social media platform – including Trump himself – were sharing posts from conspiracy theorist group QAnon, Google hit back at CEO Devin Nunes’ comments that availability of the app was solely up to the tech giants.
“On August 19, we notified Truth Social of several violations of standard policies in their current app submission and reiterated that having effective systems for moderating user-generated content is a condition of our terms of service for any app to go live on Google Play,” the company told Axios.
“Last week Truth Social wrote back acknowledging our feedback and saying that they are working on addressing these issues.”
In a statement Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), which runs Truth Social, said it was working “in good faith” with Google.
“TMTG has no desire to litigate its business matters in the public sphere, but for the record, has promptly responded to all inquiries from Google,” it said.
The company that plans to merge with TMTG to give it access to the stock market, Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC), is also facing financial difficulties.
It wants to delay the merger by up to a year, with the current deadline set for September 8. According to CNBC, DWAC has warned that it may be forced to liquidate if the deadline is not extended.
DWAC shares were now trading for just over US$25 each, down 16 percent in a month and nearly 75 percent down on their high of US$97 each.
The former president and reality television show host setup Truth Social as a so-called free speech haven after being banned from Twitter and other social media over his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol.
However Truth Social has been plagued with problems since it was announced, from the site being defaced through to legal threats for violating the terms of the licence for the software used to run it.
