Melania Trump has delivered an apparent snub to her husband's upcoming social media network by announcing an "exclusive" deal with rival right-wing platform Parler.
The former First Lady of the United States said Parler was at the forefront of Web3 technology and empowered its users to "foster productive discourse".
"I am excited and inspired by free speech platforms that give direct communication to people worldwide," she said.
In a statement which revealed it was already powering Trump's NFT platform, Parler said the former model would provide "exclusive communications" for it, saying she had "engaged Parler in a special arrangement for her social media communication".
TRUTH Social, the new platform from former US President and reality television host Donald Trump was due to be launched this month, but Fox Business has reported it is now targeting the end of March for its release.
Both Parler and TRUTH Social have had their share of issues in the last year.
Parler was deplatformed by major technology companies after it failed to appropriately deal with violent conduct associated with the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 by a mob of Trump followers.
Apple has since allowed the Parler app back on its App Store but it's still unavailable through Google's Play Store. According to the platform, it has 16 million users.
TRUTH Social, meanwhile, was defaced within hours of its beta site being launched. Users signed up for names using prominent people, including the former US President.
It then avoided potential legal action after finally acknowledging it was based on open-source software Mastodon.
It's a decentralised social network that allows people to create their own platform, but requires anyone using it to make the source code plus any modifications publicly accessible.
TRUTH Social didn't do this, and indeed published a Terms of Service (ToS) document that said all code and software was proprietary.
Only after the creator of Mastodon contacted the social platform's legal department was the appropriate acknowledgment made on the site.
