Donald Trump continues to develop his social network. His media company announced Tuesday the launch of a video streaming service, in the midst of the electoral campaign for the former US president who is also facing his first criminal trial in New York. Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) said in a statement that it has completed a 6-month testing phase of its “new live television streaming platform.”
It plans to begin distributing content on the mobile application and website of Truth Social, Donald Trump's social network launched in early 2022, then to create its own application, first for smartphones and tablets, then for connected televisions.
Fall in stock market valuation
The new streaming service will notably offer content typical of “news, religious or family channels” and films and documentaries “deprogrammed or at risk of being deprogrammed” by other platforms, specifies the press release. “We want to permanently house the high-quality news and entertainment that faces discrimination by other channels and streaming services. There is a lot of great content that is not finding an audience for unfair reasons,” said Devin Nunes, CEO of TMTG quoted in the press release.
Truth Social has only generated a few million dollars in revenue since its creation, and TMTG, which went public at the end of March, saw its shares collapse. Its valuation, which reached nearly $11 billion on its first day of trading, has fallen by more than two-thirds since then.
The Republican presidential candidate, already prosecuted in several financial cases, has been facing a criminal trial for hidden payments since Monday. He is accused of having bought the silence of former pornographic film star Stormy Daniels, a few days before the 2016 election which he won, narrowly, against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. In court, he denounced an “attack” on America.
VIDEO. Trump facing criminal justice: the former president denounces an “attack on America”
An avid user of Twitter (now X) when he was in power, Donald Trump was banned from major social networks for inciting violence during the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021. He ended up being allowed to return, but he communicates primarily through Truth Social. He recently published a video showing an image where Joe Biden appears tied hand and foot, arousing the anger of the US president's campaign team, which accused the businessman of inciting "political violence" .