‘Something went wrong’: Trump’s new ‘Truth Social’ tops App Store and breaks itself

Donald Trump’s Twitter competitor, Truth Social, went live and topped Apple’s App Store ahead of TikTok and Facebook, breaking itself in the process.

Donald Trump’s Twitter rival “Truth Social” has gone straight to the top of the App Store, beating TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

But the former president’s social media competitor immediately ran into tech issues, with users getting error messages: “Something went wrong. Please try again.”

A few hours later, the app was back up with a warning that the popularity had up saying it was too popular: “Due to massive demand, we have placed you on our waitlist.”

“We love you, and you’re not just another number to us,” messages said, as the waitlist counter approached the 200,000 mark.

Donald Trump launches “Truth Social” to compete with Twitter, topping Apple’s App Store and breaking itself in the process. Picture: AFP.

A notice on the Truth Social website said user creation was “rate-limited” during the initial rollout and that they were working to expand capacity.

Due to the overwhelming demand at launch, we are currently rate-limited on onboarding new users to the platform. We are working to increase signup capacity for onboarding and will continue to update this status as capacity increases.

Devin Nunes, CEO of the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), said the app would be “fully operational” by the end of March.

“This week, we’ll begin to roll out people on the Apple App store,” he said. “Our goal is, I think we’re going to hit it, I think by the end of March, we’re going to be fully operational at least within the United States.”

Donald Trump launches “Truth Social” to compete with Twitter, topping Apple’s App Store and breaking itself in the process. Picture: AFP.

Truth Social will be the first platform used by Trump since he was banned by Silicon Valley tech giants in the wake of the US Capitol riot.

He had almost 90 million followers on Twitter when he was erased from the platform, with many going to other Twitter competitors like Parler, Gettr and Gab.

His first post to Truth Social came on February 15, saying: “Get Ready! Your favourite President will see you soon!”

Originally published as ‘Something went wrong’: Trump’s new ‘Truth Social’ tops App Store and breaks itself