Then there’s Mastodon’s code. As Truth Social was in development in 2021, the Software Freedom Conservancy accused it of violating a free and open source software licensing agreement for taking Mastodon’s code. Anyone can use Mastodon’s code, but they must make the source code public. Truth Social called its code “proprietary,” which violated its licensing agreement. It later quietly added an open source section to its website, acknowledging the open source code and Mastodon.
In addition to growth, Truth Social faces a funding problem: About $1.3 billion in funding has been tangled up in a merger between Trump Media and Technology Group, owner of Truth Social, and Digital World Acquisition Corp. Federal prosecutors and regulators are investigating the deal, which could allow Digital World to liquidate and evaporate funding. The clock was ticking with a Dec. 8 deadline for the merger, but Digital World shareholders voted on Nov. 22 to delay the merger until 2023. Trump Media is also reportedly eyeing collaborations with right-wing social media sites Rumble and Parler.
That’s exactly the kind of problem something like Mastodon can avoid. It is based on an ideal of decentralization, which means that it cannot be bought and manipulated by one person, as the network consists of more than 7,700 independent servers. Mastodon has experienced explosive growth since Musk bought Twitter and now has 2.4 million active monthly users, up from 381,000 the day the deal closed.
Truth Social is not decentralized and has several conservative celebrities, but revolves around Trump and his brand. (He has 4.6 million followers on the platform.) Trump Media and Technology Group did not respond to requests for comment on the size of the site, how it has grown amid recent events, or whether Trump will return to Twitter.
Trump has every interest in getting Truth Social up, so his indifference to returning to Twitter when Musk first bought the platform and brought the idea forward made sense. But now that he is running for president in 2024, it may be difficult and detrimental for Trump to resist the temptation of 88 million followers waiting for him on Twitter, compared to less than 5 million on Truth Social. Still, he stays away for now. “I’ve heard we’re going to get a big majority to go back on Twitter as well,” Trump said Saturday. “I don’t see it because I don’t see a reason to.”
Trump also reportedly has a contract with Truth Social that requires him to make many of his posts exclusive there for eight hours before they appear on other networks. (There are exceptions for certain content directly related to political messaging, fundraising, and election turnout.)
Many people who use alternative platforms like Truth Social still get information from the giants like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, according to the Pew study. Like users of Mastodon, which people have signed up for while wearyly watch how Twitter could change, Truth Social users may be complementing their social media rather than completely replacing Twitter. But it’s a go-to spot for breaking news — or at least as the place to watch Trump’s unfiltered reactions. After US federal agents searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August, downloads of the Truth Social app increased fivefold.
Neither Mastodon nor Truth Social can ever match Twitter. And Trump has remained characteristically vague about his intentions for the bird site he once called home. When Musk posted a poll on Twitter on Nov. 19 asking if he should restore Trump’s account, the former president shared it on his Truth Social. “Now vote with positivity, but don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere,” he wrote. “Truth Social is special!”
