Trump’s Truth Social is weeks from launching. One GenZer can’t wait. – Business Insider

With just weeks to go before the anticipated launch of Donald Trump's social-media substitute, Truth Social, excitement appears to have stalled.

Except for 18-year-old Weston Imer, a politically eager Gen Zer who has already signed up for the app and maintains that whatever Trump brings to the market will blow America away.

"The return of daily content and the 'mean tweets' that everyone has missed, including CNN and MSNBC, will be a great thing," Imer, an alumnus of Trump's 2016 campaign, said of his hopes for the platform. Imer, who touts himself as a "social-media influencer" on Twitter, is running his mother Laurel Imer's bid for the House seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter of Colorado,

Insider reached out to a dozen former Trump administration aides, seasoned GOP strategists, and Trump business associates for an update on the right-leaning communication hub. Most didn't respond to requests for comment about Truth Social, which could go live as soon as February 21.

Those who weighed in said they hadn't paid much attention to the project Trump has pushed for since being cut off from his millions of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram followers because of his role in the deadly January 6 Capitol siege.

One of a handful of online communications tools catering to MAGA devotees at odds with mainstream services like Twitter, Truth Social bills itself as offering "an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology."

The biggest difference between Truth Social and existing conservative channels like Gettr and Parler is Trump's involvement. And the promise that he'll resume the stream-of-consciousness brain dumps that infuriated his detractors before the embattled former president lost his posting privileges.

Devin Nunes, the 10-term California Republican who recently resigned from Congress to become CEO of Trump Media and Technology Group, Truth Social developers, and the Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington did not respond to requests for comment about the projected launch or the app's intended audience. The months-old Trump Media and Technology Group is already under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

While the site is still in development, details are beginning to emerge about the nascent company's initial offering.

The anything-goes dream of Truth Social is just that. The tech firm hired to handle content moderation said its artificial intelligence automatically filters posts featuring "nudity, drugs, violence, hate speech, spam, and bullying," but won't block political talk or misinformation. Nunes said the safeguards are essential to creating "the most family-friendly site."

"We're not going to censor anybody because they have a different opinion about, for example, a COVID vaccine," Nunes told Fox News. "That is what the open internet is all aboutit should be for the free flow of debate and ideas all over the globe, so that people can learn from one another and debate with one another."

And applicants for the service must theoretically make it through the site's "waiting list" a vetting process that doesn't seem to apply to VIP recruits.

The TikTok personality Jeremy Jacobowitz, who called Trump "literally the dumbest fucking person ever" in a video posted in October 2020, reported receiving an invite to claim his preferred username ahead of Truth Social's official rollout.

Whether Jacobowitz appreciates the nod or former aides fully understand what Trump is up to these days matters not to Imer. He told Insider that he, his mother, and many of his friends "in the movement" are pre-registered and ready to tap back into Trump's every passing thought.

Since being booted from social media, Trump's venting has been relegated to the sporadic statements issued by his post-presidential office.

The other person Imer's excited to engage with is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the controversial Republican from Georgia who's been banned from Twitter for repeatedly spreading disinformation. Imer said Greene, who personally invested at least $15,001 in Trump's media company last fall, would be "another major addition to the platform."

Greene's nearly 325,000 Parler followers haven't heard from her in months. She's much more active on twin Gettr feeds listing a combined audience of more than 860,000 followers.

Greene was one of the four dozen political commentators who have struggled to replicate the audience growth they experienced on Twitter since migrating to the existing echo-chamber-like clones, Washington Post analysts reported.

Political exiles aside, Imer said Truth Social is a natural fit for conservative candidates seeking to "reach their base without shadow banning and censorship." He predicted that others from across the aisle would likely follow.

"I think you will see some moderate Democrats that disagree with all the censorship join the app," Imer said.

And he's thought up a few ways to ensure Truth Social trumps existing social-media sites for good.

The simplest innovation: Scrap the 280-character limit. Imer said allowing people to write longer, rather than relaying their messages in sequential Twitter threads, "would be a great thing."

"I also think adding a livestreaming option would be beneficial to them in the long run," Imer said.

As psyched as he is to participate, sitting on his hands while the Truth Social gatekeepers sort through the waitlist suits Imer just fine.

"I think for now it's just a way to build up hype and generate curiosity," he wrote in an email. "I would say it's working!"

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Trump's Truth Social is weeks from launching. One GenZer can't wait. - Business Insider