BFF alerted me that Trump was launching Truth Social this weekend. It’s in the iPhone App Store.
Not sure what they were thinking. iPhone users are coastal elites. We’re the last people who would want to download any Trump related app on our phones. (I’m not saying ALL android users would want it. I’m saying there are more android users who will want it.)
Anyway. It doesn’t work. They plan to have it completely operational by the end of March. Right now, you get put on a waiting list to get an account after you sign up. I might be conspiratorial here but what are the chances that a prospective account holder gets a quick background check to make sure they’re not Democrats or socialists or commies? (Note that these are separate affiliations. I know, but this distinction tends to go right over some peoples’ heads.)
Doesn’t apple have standards for what goes in the App Store? How much do you want to bet that it will eventually have “in app purchases”? Let’s say that the account waiting list thing is not a screening feature, does it make sense to allow an app creator to do end to end user acceptance testing during product launch? Have they addressed all the vulnerabilities out there? Do they request access to your location data? I only ask.
Here’s the thing about Truth Social that creeps me out. The entities that use the “truth” thing to death are high control religious groups. Like the Mormons (sorry, LDS. 🙄). And Jehovah’s Witnesses. To belong to those churches, you not only have to believe in 6 impossible things before breakfast, you spend most of your time validating your belief in the “truth” with other followers. “I know the church is true and here is my testimony.” Or just watch the “sisters” and “brothers” clump together during the (all too short) break between meetings on Sunday, talking about where they were when they discovered “the truth”. They never ever get tired of talking about it. It’s more important to them that the actual “truth”.
Funny, if they really listened to each other, they might figure out the pattern of actions and behaviors that got them roped into the “truth” in the first place but their introspection and analysis never gets that far. Does the “truth” truncate your ability to figure this out or do the “truth” bequeathers seek out people who are the least likely to question them?
I think it’s because they know that they are being asked to believe impossible things and they are constantly seeking validation for their commitment to believe impossible things that they ask each other over and over again to describe their conversions. These church followers are so focused on evangelism because they won’t feel completely validated if there are still people out there that can challenge the “truth” and don’t have their own conversion story.
The truthfulness of the “truth” doesn’t matter. What matters is that they stay in their bubble and don’t let outsiders mess with their heads by challenging their worldview. It makes them feel anxious. Like maybe they’ve been in the club too long and outsiders make them start to realize how ridiculous they sound.
Maybe they need to keep just enough MAGA heads in the bubble just long enough. Giving them Truth Social allows them to discuss their conversion stories and keep distrust of outsiders at a fever pitch.
Lol! I just looked at the description for Truth Social. What it looks like is a misinformation site that takes the user down a rabbit hole created by the most experienced conspiracy theorists, propagandists and psyops specialists. Once they have your profile, the “truth” will be meticulously tailored to your most disturbing shadow. It’s going to have all the misinformation talking points and buzz words without the charm of the Facebook user interface. Does apple have a misinformation policy? Hmmm. We’re about to find out.
If I were Trump, I wouldn’t have gone with the apple App Store to launch this. Sure, apple wants to make a buck like anyone else and once you decide to get into the apple universe of products, you’re kind of hooked for life. It’s another sort of high control group that just happens to feature the sleekest, highest quality, most enviable high tech toys out there and we all stand around talking about the first time we ever used a mouse or saw our first flying toaster screen saver. It’s not like we don’t know what we’re doing. We can quit whenever we want to. We just don’t want to. (I’m still available to do product endorsements in exchange for a new MacBook Pro for me to review. My old MacBook Pro is 11 years old. 😢 Call me.)
It’s just that we are the least likely audience for a location tracking, access seeking, buggy app that’s going to want credit card information (you know it’s coming) in order to unlock the super secret “truth” when we can get all the “truth” conspiracy theories we can eat from QAnon for free! Emphasis on “con”. It would be like hanging a Christmas tree air freshener on the rear view mirror of a Tesla.
And we apple nerds are unlikely to do that. But the minute one of us manages to get in, queue the app reviews. They’re going to be worth the price of a new iPhone 13.
Filed under: General |
The Confluence 
I don’t think that Steve Jobs would ever have allowed this. What a shame to associate Apple with dangerous brainwashing. Bob Dylan was Jobs’ favorite musical artist, and he sang about entities purveying distorting lies in his great early songs.
Agreed, hopefully Jobs would have nixed this. But Tim Cook is climbing the Forbes 500, so he will take every cent he can get.
If I were Trump I’d have targeted IOS first, too. It’s where the money is. The man has legal bills and porn stars to pay, after all.
Honestly, as long as the Trump app doesn’t violate the App Store TOCs, I don’t think Apple would have legal justification to shut them down. I also don’t think they want to add fuel to the “break up Big Tech” fire by taking an action that would appear to be politically-motivated censorship.
Note that Trump will almost certainly end up violating Apple’s TOCs eventually, because he’s just too unhinged not to.
I read the description. The intent is clear. It will be a misinformation app. All misinformation all the time. You’ll be able to follow the misinformers you like best. You’re right that we don’t know if Apple’s terms will apply to it. I don’t know what apple’s terms are except I do remember that it wasn’t too long ago when a number of apps were pulled from its store for violations.
Let’s put it this way. Imagine if Joe Rogan could code. What’s the harm? They’re just “discussions”.
If apple has a misinformation policy, I feel confident that it will take Truth Social *hours* to violate it. If apple doesn’t have a misinformation policy, then I hope Tim Cook gets an invitation to testify before Congress.
I didn’t say whether it would be harmful, I just said that it might very well not cross the line enough to warrant prior restraint. That’s a pretty high bar. The one thing Apple is really worried about is legal challenges that might cause it to lose control of the App Store. There are two reasons for this:
1. It’s a cash cow, and
2. It allows Apple to audit apps for security.
There are already a bunch suits against Apple to allow “side-loading” (i.e. to allow users to load apps on the phone that aren’t cryptographically signed by Apple and haven’t been audited). They really don’t want to get hit by another one. There are also two bills, one in the US and one in the EU, which are explicitly targeted at the App Store and would force Apple to allow side-loaded code to run.
This would be a nightmare for IOS security. Android phones are plagued by malware and Apple doesn’t want to find itself in the same situation. If they ban the Trump app before it even gets started, they’ll only encourage the passage of legislation that would compromise the security of the iPhone and iPad (and cost them a bundle in the process). I wouldn’t do it either.
And I really, really wish WordPress had an “edit” button for comments.
I agree but I must say your new phrase “bunch suits” has a certain flair to it.
Yeah, but it’s kind of ambiguous given the context, isn’t it? ;-).
Oh no no no, I didn’t mean to suggest that apple pull the app before it gets started. I mean to say that when they have to pull the app, the damage will be clear and unambiguous.
Sure they won’t collect info from you directly to sell to third parties. They’ll just analyze who you follow, probably salting some sock puppets with carefully crafted talking points. Then they’ll just treat the app like one big focus group and feed them misinformation. How much you wanna bet that there will be likes that get you mojo? Sort of like how DailyKos used to do it.
It will amount to the same thing and users of Truth Social will believe that the Deep State is planning to set up pebble bed reactors in your pool and want to teach your children how to solve math using Tarot cards.
Maybe they’ll give up before March.
I’m pretty certain that the combination of long COVID brain damage, the TIAs, the tertiary syphilis, garden-variety dementia, and whatever unholy drug cocktail his Dr. Feelgood has concocted to keep him upright has made TFG his own worst enemy,