Former US President Donald Trump has decried Twitter and Facebook and announced to launch his own social media app, TRUTH Social, that he said would "stand up to Big Tech" companies.
TRUTH Social will be created through a new company formed by a merger of the Trump Media and Technology Group and a special acquisition company (SPAC), according to a press release distributed by both organizations, Reuters reported on Thursday.
“We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced. This is unacceptable," Trump said in a written statement included in the release.
"I am excited to send out my first TRUTH on TRUTH Social very soon. TMTG was founded with a mission to give a voice to all. I'm excited to soon begin sharing my thoughts on TRUTH Social and to fight back against Big Tech," he said.
According to the news release, the social network is set for a beta launch next month and full rollout in early 2022. The platform is the first of three stages in the company's plans, followed by a subscription video-on-demand service called TMTG+ that will feature entertainment, news and podcasts.
A Trump representative, who remained anonymous, confirmed the contents of the TMTG news release to Reuters. Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington also tweeted a copy.
"For so long, Big Tech has suppressed conservative voices," the former president's son, Donald Trump Jr., told Fox News in an interview. "Tonight my father signed a definitive merger agreement to form what will ultimately be the Trump Media and Technology Group and TRUTH Social - a platform for everyone to express their feelings."
Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms banned Trump from their services after protesters stormed the US Capitol on January 6.
Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol in the hope of preventing lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden's victory, thus overturning the outcome of the 2020 presidential election but to no avail.
Trump, who believes that the election was rigged by the US establishment in favor of Biden, has said that the 2020 presidential election was “the greatest Election Hoax in history.”
According to recent surveys, most Republicans also believe that the election was stolen from the former president, and Trump is the legitimate president of the United States.
Trump last year accused Twitter and Facebook of wanting to help Biden’s campaign by enforcing policies that restrict users' ability to share a New York Post story that contained alleged details of Hunter Biden’s business dealings with a Ukrainian energy company, also saying the former vice president had met with an adviser of the company.
“Now, Big Tech — you see what’s going on with Big Tech? — is censoring these stories to try and get Biden out of this impossible jam. He’s in a big jam,” Trump said.
"He and his family are crooked and they were caught, they got caught," Trump added.
Pulitzer Prize-winner American investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald has revealed in a recent article that an axis of the CIA, Big Tech and the DNC-allied wing of the corporate media spread an absolute lie in the weeks before the 2020 presidential election to help Biden win the vote.
He wrote that “the CIA, Big Tech, the liberal wing of the corporate media and the Democratic Party” censored and suppressed “a series of major reports about then-presidential frontrunner Joe Biden.