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President Trump’s Truth Social is proudly boasting record levels of activity during the first month of the new year.
On Tuesday, the official page of Truth Social posted, “Alert: Truth Social hit record activity levels in the first week of January. We also hit record levels for the 4th quarter of 2022 after becoming fully available on all devices in October. It seems that free speech is in demand.“
There are a few disparate elements that have coalesced to create this newfound interest and embrace of Truth Social.
The first is likely the new plethora of features, such as direct messaging, that would appeal to an audience accustomed to Twitter. The second element may be its rather recent addition to the Google Android app store as of October. The third element, as reported by Just The News on Tuesday, might be that “the platform started by former President Donald Trump achieved record activity during the extraordinary week of Republican tumult that preceded House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s election Friday night.”
There might be some justifiable speculation that this tumult contributed to the boost for Truth Social.
This joyful news for Trump’s platform comes in contrast to the reception that Big Tech has had to endure lately.
On the moral side, it was reported by Barron’s on Monday that a school district in the ultra-liberal city of Seattle is filing a lawsuit against Big Tech for creating a litany of mental health issues for its students. These include depression and anxiety. The outlet reported that the complaint, which was filed on Friday, targets Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, but also Google, Snapchat, YouTube, and Chinese-owned TikTok.
Barron’s reported that public school officials said they are “holding social media companies accountable for the harm they have wreaked on the social, emotional, and mental health” of students. One wonders if this potential lawsuit might serve as a catalyst for similar actions from other school districts.
On the pragmatic side, Big Tech’s business model appears to be taking a hit. An article from IndustryWired notes that a “wave of layoffs has hit big tech companies and small businesses in recent months. Their CEOs cite reasons such as rising labor costs, in part due to inflation, as well as business slowdowns and a shortage of funds in both private and public markets. Even industry juggernauts, including Meta and Google, have frozen hiring for some engineering positions for the rest of the year.”
From a business standpoint, it seems that a type of critical mass might be reached, which could well clear the way for alt-tech companies such as Truth Social, and others like Parler and Gab, to thrive in the marketplace.