Prank exploits Trump’s social media platform to annoy former president
One TikTok user concluded that Truth Social is “really easy to break into” because its audience is vastly smaller than its better known rivals.
March 27, 2023, 10:48 AM EDT
By Steve Benen
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Peter McIndoe Jr. filmed a video in front of Trump Tower in New York, explaining that if 100 or so people created accounts and used the #desantis2024 hashtag, “it will literally be trending” because the platform just doesn’t have that many users.
The assumption proved true: A few TikTok users persuaded a modest number of people to create Truth Social accounts and publish #desantis2024 messages. A day later, it stood atop the list of the most popular topics on the platform.
Ari Cagan, one of the TikTok users behind the idea, told Vice News, “We wanted to make something trend that would really piss off Trump. We noticed that he was ‘truthing’ a lot about DeSantis. If DeSantis started trending on his own platform, it would annoy him to no end.”
Cagan also told NBC News that Truth Social is “really easy to break into” because its audience is vastly smaller than its better known rivals.
After the pro-DeSantis message fared well, it became more difficult to join Truth Social, though it’s not altogether clear why: Maybe the system’s servers struggled, or maybe Team Trump paused the new-account-approval process in the hopes of stemming the DeSantis-related tide.
Either way, it’s hard not to wonder whether the former president — the “professional at technology” — saw this coming.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/prank-exploits-trumps-social-media-platform-annoy-former-president-rcna76809?
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