Snags, Bills Add Up for Truth Social

Truth Social, the social media website launched by former President Donald Trump, is up against a series of unsolved issues that could be serious enough to be giving the company that agreed to merge with it cold feet. The issues include:

• Bills: An internet infrastructure company charges that Truth Social has skipped out on more than $1 million in payments specified in their contract, Fox Business reports. RightForge reportedly is one of Truth Social's biggest vendors and creditors. Spokespeople for the company said they wouldn't discuss the dispute but wouldn't deny it. "RightForge believes in the mission of President Trump's free speech platform," chief executive Martin Avila said. The two companies now communicate only through their lawyers, per the Washington Post.
• The name: The Patent and Trademark Office rejected Trump's application to trademark "Truth Social" after finding two other companies already using the name. That suggests Truth Social's lawyers didn't vet the name, per Axios, though sometimes a company ignores lawyers' findings and tries to use a name anyway.
• The partner: Digital World Acquisition Group, which agreed to merge with Truth Social and take it public, has tapped the brakes. The company asked shareholders to extend the merger agreement for a year and last week asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow it to delay its earnings report. Digital World's stock price has plummeted almost 75% since its high point in March, and the company said in a filing last week that it lost $6.5 million in the first six months of 2022.
• The outlook: Digital World's SEC filings say Truth Social has yet to develop a guaranteed source of revenue. It's expressed worry that Trump's legal battles could diminish his popularity, per the Post, damaging the site's prospects. Traffic has fallen from almost 1.5 million views per day to 300,000 now, and an online analytics firm found that it's slowed down since the FBI searched Trump's Florida home. Trump is Truth Social's biggest draw, but he has fewer than 4 million followers.

(More Truth Social stories.)