OREM, Utah (ABC4) – A central Utah city is facing some backlash after asking the community if they’ll be using former President Donald Trump’s new social media platform, Truth Social.
At around 8 a.m., the City of Orem Government posted to Facebook saying: “Do you plan to create an account on Truth Social? This is the new social media created by President Donald Trump. The City wants to be where the people are. As we plan our future communication strategies it begs the question.”
About 13 minutes later, the Facebook post was edited to say: “The purpose of this post was not to alienate anyone or promote one side or the other. We depend on social media to help get information to residents and we simply wanted to know if large numbers of Orem residents would be leaving traditional social media in favor of this.”
Many Facebook users took to the comments to say “no” with others criticizing the city for making the post.
In late October, the former president announced the rollout of Truth Social in a statement issued by Trump Media & Technology Group. As The Hill reports, Trump intends for the platform to combat censorship and the “self-righteous scolds and self-appointed arbiters” who the former president said decide what everyone else is allowed to “think, say, share, and do.”
“The corruption of these platforms cannot be ignored,” Trump said. “We have fallen far down the ‘slippery slope’ of censorship in our country, and the topics that Americans are increasingly forbidden to debate are among the most important issues of our day.”
“This wildly aggressive censorship and “cancel-culture” is not only un-American—it has direct, real-world consequences,” Trump added.
Truth Social is expected to have a beta launch in November with a full launch in 2022. In addition to the social media project, Trump Media & Technology Group announced it would also launch an on-demand video streaming service.
