What you need to know
- Donald Trump launched his own social media platform, dubbed Truth Social earlier this year.
- The platform has been available on the Apple App Store but not on Android's Play Store.
- Google says it has not accepted app submissions due to the lack of content moderation.
Earlier this year, Trump's Twitter clone, Truth Social, launched on iOS. The social media platform was created as a place that "encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology." However, the "open" nature of the platform seems to be the very reason why the app has not arrived on the Google Play Store.
A report by Axios details the reasoning behind Truth Social's absence on the Play Store. In a statement to the publication, a Google spokesperson stated that the primary reason why Truth Social isn't on Android is content moderation or lack thereof.
"On Aug. 19, we notified Truth Social of several violations of standard policies in their current app submission and reiterated that having effective systems for moderating user-generated content is a condition of our terms of service for any app to go live on Google Play."
According to the spokesperson, Truth Social is currently working to address Google's concerns.
These concerns are reportedly over problematic posts that have surfaced on Truth social, such as those inciting violence. Per Axios, Truth Social has "sensitive content" warnings, although not all "sensitive" posts are labeled as such, and the platform seems to have little in the way of content moderation that would remove potentially harmful posts.
Truth Social was created following Donald Trump's removal from social media platforms such as Twitter, sporting a design that looks strikingly similar. The iOS app launched in February, and users flocked to the site seeking a platform that seemingly would not police or censor content as stringently as other social media sites. That said, early reports indicated that Truth Social was already censoring certain content and kicking users off the platform.
Assuming Truth Social is serious about its attempt to join the Android ecosystem, additional content moderation may be in the cards.
