Former President Donald Trump's Truth Social platform has steadily been gaining influence over its right-wing social media rivals despite facing both legal and financial headwinds, reports the New York Times.
As the Times puts it, Truth Social over the last year has "faced one business calamity after the next" since its launch this past winter, and is currently under federal investigation after a former executive filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that the app's parent company made "fraudulent misrepresentations" in financial reports.
Despite this, usage statistics show Truth Social has blown past rival right-wing social media sites such as Gab, Parler, and Gettr, and is now averaging between 1.5 million and 2 million unique monthly visitors.
While this still pales in comparison to tech giants such as Twitter and Facebook, it does show Trump's platform has overtaken all of the also-ran right-wing Twitter clones.
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That said, the Times' report also casts significant doubt on whether Truth Social can take the next step and compete with larger social media platforms.
"The real test for Truth Social may arrive in the coming months, as initial excitement around the app fades and the problems with its financing possibly come to a head," the report notes. "The site shows few signs of courting a wider mix of users from across the political spectrum, which would be necessary to reach lofty targets set by the company before the app launched."
