Trump’s Truth Social Rises To Top Of App Store Following Twitter Buyout

Less than a day after news emerged that billionaire Elon Musk would acquire Twitter for US$44 billion, former president Donald Trump’s social media network Truth Social has seen a sudden and unexpected rise to the top of the Apple App Store.

According to Forbes, before the deal was announced, the app ranked a lowly 52nd on the download chart after it struggled to be “fully operational” to keep up with an incredibly popular launch, with over 1.3 million individuals on the waitlist. 

Now, for the week of April 18 to April 25, app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower has reported downloads for Trump’s platform have achieved over 75,000 downloads—150% more than the week before.

Aside from Twitter users looking for a new “home,” the spike in downloads for Truth Social could be due to the resolution of the network’s technical issues. As per Fast Company, CEO David Nunes said that the app’s waitlists had been cleared and the site moved to a new cloud provider. 

Additionally, when asked if he would return to Twitter, the former President said he wouldn’t, which could have incentivized his followers to hop over to Truth Social for good. The app markets itself as “free from political discrimination.”

Will this surge bring more technical issues that could bog down the network again, or will it see Truth Social become one of the largest social media platforms to rival Musk’s Twitter?

[via Forbes and Fast Company, cover image via Matt Smith Photographer / Shutterstock.com]