Trump's New Social Media Platform 'TRUTH' Hacked By Pranksters
18:46 GMT 21.10.2021 (Updated: 14:04 GMT 19.12.2022)
© REUTERS / SHANNON STAPLETON
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Trump’s new beta social media platform TRUTH was hacked within two hours of Trump’s Wednesday night announcement that the site would be launched in early 2022.
On Wednesday night, Trump announced through a press release the formation of his new media venture called the Trump Media & Technology Group, which will include a social networking service called TRUTH Social. Several tech reporters allegedly found the site, and created fake accounts for former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.
This led to the site’s public domain being immediately taken offline, according to the Daily Dot’s Mikael Thalen, who created the fake Trump profile.
Thalen said he managed to grab a screenshot of the account settings menu before access was blocked.
For those asking, the public domain for what appeared to be the mobile beta of Trump's new social media platform 'TRUTH Social' has been taken offline.
— Mikael Thalen (@MikaelThalen) October 21, 2021
I did manage to grab a screenshot of the Account Settings menu before access was blocked. pic.twitter.com/M8G3PE0JES
Washington Post technology reporter Drew Harwell was also able to make a fake account for Pence, and said on Twitter Wednesday that people were able to sign up to create accounts using a publicly available link.
"I literally just registered ‘mikepence.’ The site hasn't even launched yet and it's already this vulnerable," Harwell added. In a subsequent tweet, he revealed that account had been suspended.
Additionally, online trolls found an unreleased test version of Trump’s social network site, made a fake Trump account and used it to post the meme image of “pig poop balls,” according to Harwell.
The site bans criticism of itself, clings to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) and adopts many other measures Trump has criticized Big Tech for after being permanently banned from Twitter following the 6 January Capitol riot.
Twitter justified its decision to “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
Trump is also planning on releasing a streaming video service to compete with the likes of Disney and Netflix, according to Trump Media & Technology Group pitch deck.
