No, you cannot download Trump’s Truth Social from the Google Play Store!

Surely you know the story of Donald Trump being banned from Twitter and Facebook. The 45th President of the United States has a stubborn resentment and he had decided to create his own social network with Truth Social, a kind of Twitter intended to oppose the “tyranny of the giant technologies”. While Google did not want to integrate it into its Play Store, the app has finally been authorized. For the moment it is only available from the USA, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Brazil. It is easy to download the app with a VPN, but it blocks at the level of the telephone number since it is mandatory to have a prefix corresponding to these 4 countries.

Variable geometry rulers

After 6 months of procrastination, the American firm explained that it had guarantees on moderation. So Truth Social had to promise to remove violent content, provide a system to report content, and block users who break the rules. However, Truth Social was already using a moderation system used by many other “normal” apps…

Freedom, I write your name (but not everywhere)

Freedom of expression is more permissive in the USA, but that does not prevent GAFAM from making their own rule. To discredit the app, opponents point to the failure that is Truth Social, with rumors of bankruptcy and above all attendance figures below expectations. It must be said that for now, Trump’s network is condemned to confidentiality. Certainly there is an iOS version, but without the support of the Play Store, the Android app must be installed “by hand” from an APK file. Only “hardcore” fans can therefore access it… Unless they only use it on a computer. Under these conditions, it is difficult to make numbers.

Also read: RT France/Sputnik: how to thwart censorship in a few clicks with a VPN?

I don’t agree with what you say, but…

Once again, we disagree with this muzzling of an opinion that is not “in the nails”. Some editorial staff have personal ties to Ukraine, yet we deplored the censorship of RT News last March. Censoring amounts to showing your opponent that what he is loudly proclaiming needs to be hidden. Another mark of infantilization: “it’s for your good”. We’re not really fans of Trump, an arrogant guy who’s probably never read three books in his life, but censoring him or his followers is counterproductive. So let them say what they want! Anyway, do you want to go to Truth Social?

Android-MT on Truth Social?

Well, we don’t hide from you that we are still very curious and we will soon try to circumvent the blocking of the app to try to become one of the first French media to have a Truth Social account.
To be continued…