The indictment against former President Donald J. Trump is good news for Truth Social, the social media website he founded. Traffic on the site has skyrocketed since the indictment was announced, according to estimates from Compareweb, a web traffic monitoring company.
Mr. Trump has often used Truth Social to respond to news of the indictment, using his feed to address New York District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg and Judge Juan M. Merchan, who oversees the case, to attack.
Trump’s prediction that he would be sued, which he posted to Truth Social on March 18, drove nearly 400,000 visits from the United States to the fledgling social media website that day, the company found. The site has averaged about 200,000 visits per day from the United States as of March 1, 2022. The data does not include traffic to Truth Social’s Apple or Android apps.
Traffic died down after the indictment failed to arrive when Mr Trump said it would. Traffic surged again last Thursday when the indictment was officially announced, bringing more than 314,000 visits from the United States to the website.
Truth Social’s influence has grown in conservative circles since its official launch in February 2022. But its business prospects took a turn for the worse as the site struggled to raise funding and launched an advertising business marred by fringe advertisers.