Former US President Donald Trump has announced his long-anticipated social media platform, called TRUTH Social.
The announcement came in a press release detailing the creation of the new, publicly listed Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) company, which will launch the platform.
"I created TRUTH Social and TMTG to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech. We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favourite American President has been silenced," said Trump, who is also the chairman of TMTG.
"This is unacceptable. I am excited to send out my first TRUTH on TRUTH Social very soon."
According to TRUTH Social's website it is "America’s 'Big Tent' social media platform that encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology".
The former President was banned from Twitter permanently and from Facebook until at least 2023 after the January 6 riot at the Capitol building in Washington DC.
"Trump Media and Technology Group's mission is to create a rival to the liberal media consortium and fight back against the 'Big Tech' companies of Silicon Valley, which have used their unilateral power to silence opposing voices in America," the company said.
The new platform is scheduled to begin beta testing in November with Apple iPhone users able to pre-order the app. Those interested have to sign up for an invite on the platform's website.
At the time of writing, the app isn't available in the New Zealand iOS App Store and it's not clear if the platform will be limited to US residents only.
A wider rollout is expected in the first quarter of 2022, the company said.
Despite its "open, free and honest" pitch, the new platform's terms of service states that users can't "disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the site".
Trump has previously created a site called 'From the Desk of Donald J Trump' to communicate with his supporters after his social media ban, but that lasted only a month before shutting down.
GETTR, a Twitter-like platform created by Jason Miller, a former senior advisor to the ex-President, was created in July for similar purposes to TRUTH social.
In its first few months it suffered from hacks and was inundated by Isis supporters and child pornography images.
Earlier this month Trump sued Twitter, asking a federal judge in Florida to request the platform restore his account.
