Donald Trump claims people tired of Facebook’s “political shenanigans” are leaving for Truth Social, resulting in Mark Zuckerberg reporting the platform’s first-ever decline in users.
The former president also said truckers in the “Freedom Convoy” being banned from Facebook would be welcome on his upcoming competitor to “fight back against Big Tech” and protect free expression.
The CEO of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, announced in an earnings call this week that the platform lost roughly 1 million users in the last three months of 2021.
Mr Zuckerberg said the loss, the first since the social media site launched, was a result of competition and the shift to short-form video.
“As well as our focus on serving young adults over-optimising overall engagement, we’re going to continue to see some pressure on impression growth in the near-term,” he told investors.
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Mr Trump, however, had a different explanation, adding people are tired of “Fake News and abuse”.
“It could also be that people are waiting for TRUTH – the highly sophisticated platform that we look forward to opening in the not too distant future. Time to straighten out what is happening in our country!” he said in a statement.
Facebook did not respond to requests for comment.
The company removed the group “Convoy to DC 202” organising a trucker rally from California to DC, with founder Jeremy Johnson adding to Fox News that his personal account was also removed.
Facebook lost roughly 1 million users in the last three months of 2021
(Getty Images)
In a statement to Fox News, a Facebook spokesperson said: “We have removed this group for repeatedly violating our policies around QAnon.”
Mr Trump said in a second statement on Friday that Facebook was seeking to “destroy the Freedom Convoy of Truckers” and that his TruthSocial would welcome more Facebook users leaving and being banned from the platform with “open arms”.
He said that Facebook was cancelling accounts from Freedom Convoy USA, which could see American truckers gather in DC to protest Joe Biden’s “ridiculous Covid policies” following Canadian truckers in Ottawa protesting “far-left lunatic Justin Trudeau”.
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“This is unacceptable and extremely dangerous in any country that values free expression. TruthSocial is announcing today that we are welcoming the Freedom Convoy with open arms to communicate freely on TruthSocial when we launch - coming very soon!” Mr Trump said in the statement.
“Also, on top of everything, it is big news that Facebook daily users wend down for the first time ever, people are tired of biased social media like Twitter and Facebook, and it’s showing in their numbers!” he added.