'Truth Social is a flop': Trump's social media platform has become a 'conservative ghost town'

After spending one month attempting to get on Donald Trump's social media platform -- and finally succeeding -- Business Insider's Rosie Bradbury has declared the experience a waste of time for conservatives looking for news and engagement.

More to the point she notes, even the former president is avoiding it -- having made only one post.

With The Wrap noting that downloads of the app have plummeted a stunning 93 percent in recent weeks, Insider's Bradbury points out there are good reasons for that by calling the platform a "conservative ghost town" that is difficult to join and a mess once you get in.

As she wrote, "I downloaded the Truth Social app on launch day and created an account – only to be told I'd been put on a waitlist in spot number 157,120. Three weeks later, on March 14, I was finally allowed to use the app, " adding, "And I found…not very much. It was like a conservative ghost town that had been overrun by bots."

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Writing, "The signs so far are that Truth Social is a flop," she continued, "After completing the setup process for new users, I was prompted to follow 50 suggested accounts," which she said included Trump's with 823,000 followers, Sean Hannity of Fox News with 372,000, but after that a bizarre selection of users that don't fit what one might have come to expect.

"Other suggested follows included the meme account 'Cats with Jobs' (38,000), an account entitled 'Hot Chicks Golfing' (61,000), and the official NASA account (113,000)," she wrote before adding, "Once I'd followed these accounts, my feed of 'truths' – what Truth Social calls posts – started filling up, but with very little original content. As I scrolled through my feed, I found that most posts were just linked-out articles on websites, posted automatically via RSS feeds."

Bradbury also noted a dearth of high-profile conservatives who have either been unable to set up accounts or have decided it's not worth their time, and that Fox News so far has taken a pass on using the platform to promote their hosts and stories.

"A few media outlets, including Fox-owned tabloid TMZ and right-wing UK newspaper The Daily Mail, had Truth Social presences. But other mainstream news organizations were missing: CNN, NBC, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal weren't there (though there was no shortage of parody accounts for these publications)," she wrote. "Interestingly, Fox News, which was once Trump's news network of choice, didn't appear to have a presence. There was an account called @FoxNewsChannel but it only had 5,920 followers, and has only posted 30 'truths' altogether."

"Through the app's profile finder, I couldn't find any verified US Senators, or Democrats from either congressional chamber," she reported. "I did find a few Republican lawmakers, though. Representatives Byron Donalds and Lisa McClain were there, with 1,000 and 233 followers respectively – but neither had posted any truths. Representative Clay Higgins was also there, with 4,320 users and seven posts."

Bradbury went on to point out that what little engagement there is on users' "truths" appears to mainly bot content.

"Truth Social was meant to be a haven for conservative discussion. It felt more like Bot Social. For example, many of the replies to Trump's solitary post were adverts for a niche cryptocurrency. And even popular hashtags turned up mainly bot-generated posts or non-organic content," she wrote before pronouncing, "It's not impossible that Truth Social could take off at some point in the future. For now, though, it's some way off becoming the social media platform of choice for Trump and his supporters."

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