JUST IN: Truth Social Announces Exciting Changes, Puts Mainstream Media On Notice

Truth Social announced plans on Tuesday to further encroach on the turf of more established social media sights like X and Instagram, according to plans revealed by the platform’s parent company.

Trump Media & Technology Group, which merged with Digital World Acquisition Corp. before going public earlier this year, announced its intent to launch a live TV streaming service that would ostensibly land on the phones, tablets, and television screens of conservatives everywhere.

The content delivery network, or CDN, will be unveiled in three phases, first in a rollout to phones and websites, followed by over-the-top (OTT) streaming services similar to Netflix and Hulu, and finally a release for home TV.

“The streaming service is expected to focus on live TV including news networks, religious channels, family-friendly content including films and documentaries; and other content that has been cancelled, is at risk of cancellation, or is being suppressed by other platforms and services,” TMTG said in a statement.

NEW: Truth social set to launch a streaming platform for live broadcasts, including apps for smartphones and TVs pic.twitter.com/0vBMjOEeu7

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) April 16, 2024

The company’s pivot is aimed at breathing new life into its public stock, which has been on a steady decline in the weeks since its blowout debut. President Trump, who earned billions of dollars from the initial public offering, is under agreement with Truth Social through 2025 to wait six hours after posting on Truth Social before he can post any “non-political communications” on other social media platforms, according to the AP.

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Regulatory filings posted by the company indicate that growing its base of roughly 7 million users is key to future success.

“In order to be successful, TMTG will need millions of those people to register and regularly use TMTG’s platform,” the company wrote. “If President Trump becomes less popular or there are new controversies that damage his credibility or the desire of people to use a platform associated with him, and from which he will derive financial benefit, TMTG’s results of operations could be adversely affected.”

“Social networks benefit from scale: The more users are on one platform, the more it increases in value — that is called network effects,” said Roxana Muenster, a doctoral student at Cornell University who studies the growth in conservative social media sites. “It is marketed in opposition to mainstream media apps, which Trump and his supporters allege discriminate against their views and limit free expression. Its content and audience are overwhelmingly conservative and made up of the MAGA base.”

Months after its launch, a Pew Research survey found that while 27% of Americans had heard of Truth Social, just 2% used it, indicating the site has a long way to go before it enters the big leagues.

Other conservative platforms including Gab, Parler, and Rumble follow in the wake of Truth Social, with none coming close to the more established sites where many allege discriminatory algorithms that suppress their conservative points of view. Elon Musk, owner of X, has encouraged President Trump to return to the platform that elevated his presidential campaign in 2016 and earned him over 87 million followers. While the 45th president posted a thank-you message to followers have Musk reinstated him, Trump has largely shied away in favor of profiting off the continued rise of Truth Social.