TRUTH Social : Trump social media platform to go public

Former President Donald Trump announced the rollout of a new social network touted as an alternative to the dominant companies in the space, which have banned him from their platforms.

The company behind the network plans to list on the Nasdaq through a merger with a SPAC in a deal that values the venture at up to $1.7 billion. In other news, digital wine club Winc, which was slated to start trading on the NYSE on Thursday, instead postponed its IPO.

About TRUTH Social -

Truth Social (also stylized TRUTH Social) is a proposed social media platform to be launched by Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). It is planned to have a limited launch on Apple's App Store in November 2021, and a full public launch in 2022.

Former President of the United States, Donald Trump raised the prospect of building a new social media platform after he was banned from Facebook and Twitter in 2021, following his response to the 2021 United States Capitol attack. In May 2021, Trump launched "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump", a site where he posted short tweet-like announcements; USA Today reported in early June that it was shut down after less than a month.

Truth Social uses a custom version of the free and open-source software Mastodon, which is typically used to connect to a broader collection of social networking websites known as the Fediverse. Truth Social's version of Mastodon removes several features, including polls and post visibility options. The platform is modeled heavily after Twitter. Users can make posts ("truths") and share other users' posts ("retruths"). The platform also features a newsfeed, called a "truth feed", as well as a notification system.

The company applied for trademarks on the name "Truth Social" and other terms including "truthing", "retruth", and "post a truth". On October 20, 2021, the special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) announced a merger with Trump Media & Technology Group. The merger valued the Trump Media & Technology Group at $875 million, as of October 21, 2021. On October 21, 2021, shares of DWAC rose by 400%, from $10 to $45.50, following the announcement of Truth Social.