Donald Trump to launch new social platform 'TRUTH Social'

Former US president Donald Trump has announced plans to launch his own social media site featuring non-"woke" entertainment and video on-demand as early as next month.

TRUTH Social will be owned by Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) and is expected to begin its beta launch for "invited guests" in November.

Mr Trump, who was banned from Twitter and Facebook in the wake of the Capitol insurrection carried out by his supporters on January 6 this year, said on Wednesday the platform would stand up to big tech.

"I created TRUTH Social and TMTG to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech," Mr Trump said.

"We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced. This is unacceptable," he added.

The Trump Media & Technology Group will merge with blank cheque company Digital Acquisition Corp to make TMTG a publicly-listed company.

"The transaction values Trump Media & Technology Group at an initial enterprise value of $875m (£634m), with a potential additional earnout of $825m (£597m) in additional shares (at the valuation they are granted) for a cumulative valuation of up to $1.7bn (£1.23bn) depending on the performance of the stock price post-business combination," the Group said in a statement.

Other "free speech" social media apps have failed to cultivate reliable followings, including Parler, which was famed as an alternative to Twitter in 2020. The app was forced offline in the wake of the Jan 6 Capitol insurrection and saw just four per cent of its users return when it was re-added to Apple's App Store in May.

Ever since Mr Trump was banned from the world's dominant social networks as punishment for stirring up the mob that ransacked Congress on January 6, he has been looking for ways to reclaim his internet platform.

In May he launched a blog called "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump," which was touted as a major new outlet.

But Mr Trump, who was also banned from Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat in the wake of the Capitol mayhem, cancelled the blog just a month later.

Former Trump aide Jason Miller launched a social network called Gettr earlier this year, but the former president has not yet joined it.

The announcement of Mr Trump's media site follows a rally he staged in Iowa this month, in which he gave his clearest signal yet that he will run for the White House in 2024.