Two tech executives abruptly resigned this week from Truth Social, the social media company launched by former President Donald Trump as a right-wing alternative to mainstream platforms.
The resignations of the executives — Josh Adams and Billy Boozer, who were hired less than a year ago to serve as Truth Social’s chiefs of technology and product development — further highlight the continued struggles the social media site has faced since its public launch earlier this year.
The former executives were reportedly aligned with the main tenets of Truth Social’s mission: to provide a place for Trump loyalists to interact online without regulation, or to avoid “cancel culture,” as many have described the enforcement of rules on other sites. (Notably, Trump was banned from Twitter last year after spewing incendiary rhetoric regarding the 2020 election.)
According to Reuters, which first reported on the executives’ departures, Adams was considered the “brains” of the technology side of the company, while Boozer had a leadership role in the management and development of the app.
The circumstances behind their resignations are currently unknown.
After the executives resigned, the site’s parent company, Trump SPAC Digital World Acquisition, saw its stock drop by 14 percent, continuing a trend of losses in the company’s stock that began after the app went live.
Since its launch in mid-February, Truth Social has been riddled with problems and mishaps. Hundreds of thousands of users are still on a waitlist to access the site, which is currently only available on the Apple store; the platform is so far completely inaccessible to Android users and through web browsers.
These issues remain in spite of assurances from former Republican congressman Devin Nunes, who now manages Truth Social’s parent company, and who previously said that the app would be “fully operational” by the end of March. According to an analysis from market research firm SensorTower, Truth Social presently ranks 35th overall among social networking apps, despite Trump’s promise that the platform would be a direct competitor to both Facebook and Twitter.
Criticisms about the app abound, even among those who can access the site. Rosie Bradbury, European Tech Fellow at Business Insider, recently noted that the site lacks actual users, including prominent conservative voices who were supposedly planning to have a big presence on the app. The feed is also full of auto-generated messages.
“It was like a conservative ghost town that had been overrun by bots,” Bradbury said of her one-week experience using Truth Social.
The app’s layout appears to be a carbon copy of Twitter’s layout — but instead of tweets and retweets, Truth Social has “truths” and “retruths.”
Although Truth Social was advertised as a platform that would be free from censorship, users have already reported being booted from the site. Indeed, Truth Social’s terms of service actually allow the company to remove any user “for any reason or no reason.”
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $136,000 in one-time donations and to add 1440 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy