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Trump's Truth Social app barred from Google Play over inadequate moderation

The Truth Social app has been unavailable to download on Android devices due to 'several violations of standard policies' regarding content moderation.

TJ Denzer

August 30, 2022 9:15 AM

Image via Trump Media and Technology Group

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Former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social social media app has faced a fairly bumpy road since coming out of the gate. At one point, it was the number one downloaded app on Apple’s App Store. At other points it has been brought up alongside criminal probes. It would seem that Truth Social is also having trouble even making it to a major corner of the app marketplace. Google Play has barred the app from download and availability on Android devices due to insufficient content moderation systems.

Google shared its decision on the barring the Truth Social app from Google Play and Android devices in a report shared with Axios. According to said report, Truth Social is unavailable because it violates Google’s terms and conditions in regards to content moderation.

“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,” Google said in the report. “Last week Truth Social wrote back acknowledging our feedback and saying that they are working on addressing these issues.”

Where Truth Social had a fairly breakout launch, ending up at the top of the download charts on Apple’s App Store on multiple occasions, it has also faced a number of challenges outside of its popularity. The company running Truth Social (Trump Media and Technology Group) had two top executives leave shortly after Truth Social launched. More than that, the company is now caught up in a criminal probe in New York regarding a 2021 SPAC deal.

These things aside, Android users make up around 70 percent of global smartphone users and 44 percent of smartphone users in the US, according to groups like Statcounter. If Truth Social can’t capture that massive chunk of would-be users, its troubles may continue to compound. Stay tuned as we continue to follow for further details.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.