Just Wanting To Appear, Donald Trump's Social Media Network Already Facing Legal Problems

JAKARTA - Donald Trump announced the launch of a new social network earlier this week. But not so long ago, the app was already in legal danger. The former US president has founded the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), a new company that will oversee the Twitter-like social app dubbed TRUTH Social.

Aimed at Trump supporters, TRUTH Social users will be able to post "TRUTHS" (similar to Tweets) and interact with other users, including Trump himself. TMTG says TRUTH Social will launch as a beta next month, with the full-featured app set to debut in the US in early 2022.

Trump has not had a social media account presence for months. Several popular platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, banned Trump after January 6, 2021, uprising at the US Capitol.

Since then, there has been a lot of speculation about how she will re-emerge on social networks. Many expect Trump to join right-leaning platforms like Parler, Gab, or the recently launched Gettr. However, to date, Trump has not established his presence on any platform.

In a TMTG press release announcing TRUTH Social, Trump claimed he created it to "oppose the tyranny of Big Tech," promising it would "vote for all."

Since that announcement, the social media app has attracted a lot of attention, not least for the architecture that underpins it. Web user Sleuthing claims to have come across an early version of TRUTH Social, which, as VICE notes, is purportedly built on top of the decentralized framework Mastodon - a popular codebase for building social apps.

While anyone can use Mastodon code, developers must comply with the relevant licenses, including the Affero General Public License (AGPL), which mandates proper attribution features from third parties—this is precisely something TMGT does not do. Indeed, The Verge reports TMTG has tried to present the TRUTH Social codebase as proprietary.

With the disclosure of these purported violations, the Software Freedom Conservancy—a non-profit organization focused on online ethical practices—has demanded that TMTG comply with the AGPL. TMTG has 30 days to improve how it displays its architecture and makes its code available to others—as required by the terms of the AGPL.

If they refuse, TMTG could be sued and may have to rebuild TRUTH Social. All of this comes after private versions of the platform have been tampered with, with some imitating Trump himself.

It remains to be seen how TMTG will handle a bumpy start and whether TRUTH Social will launch as planned. The company has announced that it plans to merge with the Digital World Acquisition Company (DWAC), a public entity specifically set up to acquire a startup.

In the days since TMTG announced TRUTH Social, DWAC's share price has risen significantly. However, if the burgeoning social app can't cope with its growth problems, investors may question whether backing Trump is a good bet.