The TRUTH Social iOS app was released today in the United States, but a scan of the app’s API using publicly available tools revealed that it had already closed registrations (the scan also revealed that the app’s “proprietary account registration microservice” is named “Pepe,” which is also the name of a racist meme). Despite the fact that TRUTH Social is the most popular free software in Apple’s App Store, most users are unable to access it.
When you download TRUTH Social, you’ll be asked to provide your email address and date of birth (you must be 18 or older to use it), after which you’ll receive a verification email. TechCrunch, on the other hand, received error notifications at every stage of the procedure.
The link returned more error messages after we received a verification email, making it difficult to register an account. Some users claim to have been placed in waitlists with over 100,000 people, while others claim they never received verification emails or were unable to get past the verification stage. The Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) was contacted by TechCrunch for comment on the sign-up issues.
Following last year’s attack on the Capitol, former President Trump grew interested in creating his own social media network after being banned from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for breaching their policies. The TMTG’s objective, according to a news release from October, is to “establish a challenger to the liberal media consortium and fight back against Big Tech firms.” TRUTH Social’s launch was similarly fraught with developing pains. The new social network exploited Mastodon’s open-source code but claimed ownership of it.
“A troubling clause in the terms of service claimed that the site is proprietary property and that all source code and software are owned, controlled, or licensed to them,” Mastodon noted at the time. “Notably, neither the terms nor any other section of the website featured any references to Mastodon, nor any links to the source code, both of which are available by default in Mastodon’s user interface.” Mastodon is open-source software released under the AGPLv3 license, which mandates that any over-the-network service that uses it make its source code and any modifications publicly available.”
TRUTH Social ultimately uploaded Mastodon’s source code to its website in December, in an “open source” section. “Regardless of your political convictions, our purpose is to promote the open source community.” “That’s why the community, not ‘Big Tech,’ is the primary place we look for excellent software,” according to TRUTH Social’s website.
Congressman Devin G. Nunes (R-CA) left the House of Representatives in December to become the CEO of TMTG (Trump serves as chairman of the company). Nunes stated in an interview with Fox News this weekend that the complete rollout of TRUTH Social is still a few weeks away – it’s now just available for iOS. “Every day, we bring on more and more Americans,” Nunes said on Fox News. “We’re getting to you as fast as can.”
