What goes up must come down. Spinning wheel got to go round. — Spinning Wheel, Blood Sweat and Tears
You didn’t need a crystal ball to figure out this one was coming. Like all things Trump, Truth Social was geared as a fast grift, designed to enrich insiders while the stock went up up up, and to allow Donald Trump to hang onto a lot of cash when the inevitable down down down came.
Thursday of last week Truth Social had an incredible trading day, quadrupling its stock in just 24 hours. As of this writing, the closing bell on the stock exchange rang a short while ago and Digital World Acquisition, Trump’s SPAC company, closed another 7% down, which is 28% down for the entire week and a 61% drop off it’s all time high of 175, which it reached one week ago today. The stock is still up overall but it may have hit its zenith.
However, a 61% stock drop is bupkis when you consider the larger picture, which is that Truth Social is set to die on the launch pad if it doesn’t get in compliance toute suite with Mastadon’s rule about disclosing modifications to their source code. Newsweek:
Trump’s not yet launched social networking site could have its software license revoked in 30 days if it does not make its source code public, Mastodon warned in a Friday blog post.
Trump announced his new social media site, Truth Social, last week, touting the platform as a new beacon of free expression online. Truth Social’s terms of use claim that “all” its source code is its “proprietary property,” but users quickly noticed that the site clearly used Mastodon code.
Mastodon is an open-source social media framework that aims to allow people to create online platforms without relying on big tech. However, its AGPLv3 license requires users to make the source code and any modifications public. In the Friday blog post, Mastodon’s founder, Eugen Rochko, said that his company had warned Truth Social that its license could be permanently revoked within a month if it does not comply with this requirement.
“On Oct 26, we sent a formal letter to Truth Social’s chief legal officer, requesting the source code to be made publicly available in compliance with the license. According to AGPLv3, after being notified by the copyright holder, Truth Social has 30 days to comply or the license may be permanently revoked,” Rochko wrote.
The clock is ticking. It’s unclear at this time whether Mastadon is the only game in town for Truth Social or if they could hire their own developers to write code. Bear in mind two things: anything Trump gets involved with is not usually staffed with high level professionals because of his reputation for stiffing people. Secondly, he had problems keeping his tiny blog on the internet and that was not one fraction as complex as this Twitter/Disney rival he has on the drawing boards. The two are not in the same conceptual universe.
This will be interesting to watch. Mark your calendars for November 26, the day after Thanksgiving. You’ll be eating leftover turkey and Trump may be sitting with leftover social media platform — and a pile of cash. Which would suit him just fine.
I think we should really refer to Don John’s Chatathing by its correct name in Russian – Pravda
Hmmn, the biggest liar, grifter, universal butt hole is being checked by open source computer software system, built to work with honest everyday citizens, trying to get a system online for reasonable purposes …
With everything Trump spoils, which is everything he touches or speaks about, and grandiose plans to steal millions BEFORE complete failure, leaving him holding the bank roll … where have all these particular marks been hiding from Trump’s actual performances?
Is a month longer or shorter than it would otherwise live?
It’s apparently set up so that he’ll make money, regardless of whether any of the actual investors do.
Because that’s what he always does.
The notion of Trump shelling out the kind of money upfront that it would take for a platform of the size he’s touting is laughable. It’s nothing more than a version of a “pump and dump” stock scheme. I’m no lawyer and don’t know much about stocks other than the Dow Index is WAY overhyped as a measure of our economy (something I learned from a then girlfriend getting her masters in business forty years ago) so I don’t know how strict the laws are in the applicable jurisdiction. But this type of prosecution is surely complicated so don’t count on Trump’s ass being hauled into court over this anytime soon.
He could fuck up an iron wedge.
He’ll just let this become another lawsuit that will never end and he’ll never pay for – with cash or with consequences.