It's been more than eighteen months since most mainstream social media platforms banned former President Donald Trump following the attack at the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021. In retaliation, Trump promised to return with a new social network, an uncensored platform similar to previous attempts in the past. That app, Truth Social, finally launched earlier this year, but more than six months after arriving on the App Store, it has yet to be made available on Android. Now, as the platform faces financial uncertainty, we're learning more about why Truth Social isn't on the Play Store.
As reported by Axios, the months-long delay in getting the app on Android has everything to do with Truth Social's moderation policies — specifically, those surrounding threats of violence. As a "free speech" social network, Truth claims to allow anything on their site — well, almost anything — while adding a "sensitive content" warning to certain posts. That's not true moderation, though, nor does it seem to catch every post that contains calls for violence. Axios specifically highlights a comment that threatened harm against military members before calling for the US to be "nuked," which went unlabeled on the site. Sounds like a great, extremely chill place to spend your time.
According to Google's official statement on the matter, the company sent a list of violations to Truth Social on August 19th, and the company will have to rectify these infringements before it's allowed to publish on the Play Store:
"On Aug. 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."
Meanwhile, Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes insists his company is waiting on Google to take action, telling Axios, "I don't know what's taking them so long." Up to this point, the social network has specifically avoided third-party app stores or direct APK downloads, instead simply allowing interested parties to "pre-order" the Android app by pre-registering. It seems like reaching a potential user base after six months of waiting would be, though it would probably weaken these complaints against Google.
All of this drama is playing out amid some real financial struggles for the company. As The Verge reports, the company's SPAC isn't going anywhere, and the company meant to take ownership of Truth Social — Digital World Acquisition Corp. — isn't just not making money, but has lost $6 million this year alone. It also stopped paying some of its vendors, including RightForge, a right-wing "cancel-proof" internet host that plans to sue over $1.6 million in owed fees.