It's been nearly a year since former President Donald Trump's infamous Twitter account was banned for inciting a deadly failed insurrection against the United States Capitol.
The ban led Trump and his allies to further lament they were being "silenced" by Big Tech. Sure to follow, Trump's supporters soon began fleeing to conservative social media alternatives like Parler and Gab, which tout reduced moderation. Former Trump spokesman Jason Miller founded "GETTR," and used his affiliation with Trump to promote it. Trump, however, didn't sign up, promising his own social network would arrive soon.
Trump announced that outlet this past week: the ironically named TRUTH Social.
The announcement said that the site would be in beta testing before a limited release, followed by a wider release in early 2022. But it was only a matter of hours before internet sleuths uncovered a test version of the site, hacking Trump's official account and taking popular usernames like @donaldtrump and @mikepence.
That isn't the last of the already embattled site's problems, the rollout may lead to yet another lawsuit for Trump.
After hackers released screenshots of TRUTH Social's open source code, Eugen Rochko—founder of the Mastodon social media software company—said the site appeared to violate its requirement that Mastodon's general code be shared with users.
Rochko told Talking Points Memo:
"I do intend to seek legal counsel on the situation, though. Compliance with our AGPLv3 license is very important to me, as that is the sole basis upon which I and other developers are willing to give away years of work for free."
Mastodon's official account had already called out the code for looking "familiar" to his.
Well that looks familiar— Mastodon \ud83d\udc18 (@Mastodon \ud83d\udc18) 1634789459
People weren't surprised to see Trump's new site already potentially facing legal trouble.
That was quick. Off to court or dump the software before it starts. Violating TOS by TFG. Surprise. Surprise. Surprise.https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/nice-start-trumps-truth-app-may-violate-terms-of-open-source-code-its-built-on?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nice-start-trumps-truth-app-may-violate-terms-of-open-source-code-its-built-on\u00a0\u2026— Russ Fraley (@Russ Fraley) 1634840092
Just another lawsuit because some folks don\u2019t believe in following any rules.https://apple.news/AXMDWB-BhQD-cfA-8QRVFrw\u00a0\u2026— Paul E Cooley (@Paul E Cooley) 1634934724
Now when has Trump ever stollen anything? \nHere comes another lawsuit.\n\nDonald Trump Accused of Ripping Code From Social Network Mastodon for 'Truth Social' Sitehttps://a.msn.com/01/en-ca/AAPNG0D?ocid=st\u00a0\u2026— Fin FoxGuy - 3.8 billion vaccinations worldwide \ud83d\udc89 (@Fin FoxGuy - 3.8 billion vaccinations worldwide \ud83d\udc89) 1634922910
Yet another lawsuit waiting to happen.\n\nDonald Trump launches own social media app and news companyhttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-truth-social-app-b1942394.html\u00a0\u2026— @D_twiton (@@D_twiton) 1634891429
Regardless, the reception for the new app has been chilly at best.
Oh look..another Trump scam.\n#moron #liar #Traitorhttps://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/1450979193400045570\u00a0\u2026— Walking Ged (@Walking Ged) 1634868355
LOL\n\n"TRUTH"— David Pattee (@David Pattee) 1634776893
pic.twitter.com/IzYxO5KcT2— mike \ud83c\udf35 (@mike \ud83c\udf35) 1634777687
Just another Hatebook.— That Ranger (@That Ranger) 1634775888
Will it be headquartered at Four Seasons Total Landscaping?— TeaTime\ud83c\udf7e (@TeaTime\ud83c\udf7e) 1634777817
Trump has been given 30 days to comply with Mastodon's terms of service.
@blessedles3/Instagram
@lorna_lmw_87/Instagram
@jlynn.xoxox/Instagram
@socy.ward.clark/Instagram
@mariafoynz/Instagram
@photowestco/Instagram
@aplaceinthe_sun/Instagram
@koltnavaro/Instagram
@smarta007/Instagram
@heidikansss/Instagram
@k.hancock/Instagram
@jesse_lynn_81/Instagram
@porche.riley/Instagram
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social