Google notifies Truth Social of several violations of standard policies, pointing out it lacked the required moderation of user-generated content as users have been found inciting violence.
Truth Social restored Trump's presence on social media more than a year after he was banned from Twitter Inc, Facebook and YouTube.
(Dado Ruvic / Reuters)
Former US president Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social has not yet been approved for distribution on Alphabet Inc's Google Play Store due to insufficient content moderation.
The delay, confirmed by a Google spokesperson on Tuesday, marks a setback for the app, which launched in the Apple App Store on February 21. Android phones comprise about 40 percent of the US smartphone market. Without the Google and Apple stores, there is no easy way for most smartphone users to download Truth Social.
"On August 19, we notified Truth Social of several violations of standard policies in their current app submission and reiterated that having effective systems for moderating user-generated content is a condition of our terms of service for any app to go live on Google Play," Google said in a statement.
Google said it has expressed concerns to Truth Social about violations of its Play Store policies prohibiting content like physical threats and incitement to violence.
BREAKING: Google has removed Truth Social from the Google Play store, due to their lack of moderation of violent content, including users openly planning to overthrow the US Government.
— LeGate☮️ | pillow-fight.com CMO (@williamlegate) August 30, 2022
'Censorship-free experience'
Truth Social parent company Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) in a press release said that it has "continuously worked in good faith with Google to ensure that the Truth Social Android App complies with Google’s policies without compromising our promise to be a haven for free speech."
It added: "Moreover, some of our competitors’ apps are allowed in the Google Play Store despite rampantly violating Google’s prohibition on sexual content and other policies, whereas Truth Social has zero tolerance for sexually explicit content."
News of the Android delay was first reported by Axios.
Truth Social restored Trump's presence on social media more than a year after he was banned from Twitter Inc, Facebook and Alphabet Inc's YouTube following the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riots, after he was accused of posting messages inciting violence.
TMTG has pledged to deliver an "engaging and censorship-free experience" on Truth Social, appealing to a base that feels its views around such hot-button topics such as the outcome of the 2020 presidential election have been scrubbed from mainstream tech platforms.
READ MORE: Trump's 'Truth' network hits a roadblock as its funding woes increase
Source: Reuters
Alphabet's net income fell by 14 percent to $16 billion due to inflation, conflict and advertisers pullbacks, slowing the company's growth for the first time in two years.
Alphabte's reported 14% fall of net income was fueled by inflation, conflict and adverstisers pullbacks.
(Reuters Archive)
Google’s revenue growth during the past quarter has decelerated to its slowest pace in two years as advertisers reined in their spending amid intensifying fears of an economic recession.
Net income at the company fell 14 percent year-over-year to $16 billion in the latest quarter, but the flow of online ad dollars that fuels the company's fortunes has slowed as inflation, conflict and other troubles vex the overall economy.
"Google's earnings miss this quarter proves it's not immune to the challenges facing the digital advertising industry at large," said analyst Evelyn Mitchell.
The regression reported on Tuesday by Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet, is the latest sign that the tailwinds propelling big technology companies during the pandemic have shifted.
Alphabet’s revenue during the April-June period totaled $69.7 billion, a 13 percent increase from the same time last year.
That would be impressive growth for most companies outside of tech. But it marked Alphabet’s lowest growth rate since the April-June quarter of 2020, when the company suffered the first, and so far only, year-over-year revenue decline in its history.
The more sluggish spending was especially evident at YouTube, which rose by 5 percent from the previous year during the second quarter, the lowest rate of year-over-year quarterly growth since Alphabet began to disclose the video site’s financial results in late 2019.
Uncertainty over 'pullbacks'
The rally gained momentum after Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and other top executives assured analysts during a late Tuesday conference call that the company intended to be more judicious about its spending in the months ahead.
“Personally, I find moments like this clarifying," Pichai explained during the call. “It gives us a chance to look at everything we do through a critical lens."
The second-quarter results reflect greater caution among digital advertisers are remaining cautious as the Federal Reserve contemplates more aggressive action — meaning higher interest rates — to bring down the highest inflation in more than 40 years, a mission that threatens to drag the economy into a recession. The next rate increase is expected on Wednesday.
“We use the term ‘uncertainty' because that is the best way to characterise what we are seeing,” chief financial officer Ruth Porat said during a conference call with analysts late Tuesday.
She also acknowledged Google has been affected by “pullbacks" among an unspecified number of advertisers.
Google already began girding for potential recession by recently announcing plans to slow hiring and then went even further by imposing a two-week freeze on extending job offers to candidates.
Alphabet, with more than 174,000 employees worldwide, has recruited throughout the pandemic, but it recently announced a slowdown in hiring for the rest of the year.
