Former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform is not approved for distribution in Google’s app store, as the Big Tech company isn’t satisfied with the social media startup’s approach to moderating and censoring its users.
Google said it had earlier this month raised its issues with Truth Social, which wrote back last week saying it was working on addressing the issues necessary to become available in the Google Play Store.
On Tuesday, Google issued a statement saying its concerns had not been satisfied and the app is therefore not available for download in Google’s store.
“On August 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,” a Google spokesperson said.
Trump Media & Technology Group, the team behind Truth Social, said Tuesday it has worked in good faith to comply with Google’s rules without compromising its plan to be a haven for free speech.
“It is our belief that all Americans should have access to Truth Social no matter what devices they use,” the group said in a statement. “We look forward to Google approving Truth Social at their earliest convenience.”
Mr. Trump’s team also said it has promptly responded to all of Google’s inquiries and “has no desire to litigate its business matters in the public sphere.”
Mr. Trump’s social media platform is facing other challenges besides winning Google’s approval.
Last week, Mr. Trump’s business partners at Digital World Acquisition Corp. proposed to delay a merger with the group behind Truth Social and said it needed another year to complete the transaction.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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