Donald Trump’s social media empire has announced plans to launch a streaming platform. Its shares continued to fall.
Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of Truth Social, has come under pressure since its stunning stock market debut last month left the former president with a vast stake worth about $4.9bn on paper.
Shares in TMTG dropped close to 14% on Tuesday, having more than halved in value since it went public by merging with a shell company. Earlier this week the firm disclosed that it could sell millions of additional shares in the coming months.
Its latest decline came despite news of an ambitious expansion plan. Truth Social, Trump’s small social network, plans to branch out beyond microblogging into livestreaming.
News networks, religious channels, “family-friendly” films and “other content that has been cancelled, is at risk of cancellation, or is being suppressed on other platforms and services” will be on offer, according to TMTG.
Such content will be added into Truth Social’s existing apps and website. TMTG says it will later release standalone streaming apps for phones and tablets, before doing the same for smart TVs.
Devin Nunes, CEO of TMTG, said: “We’re excited to move forward with the next big phase for Truth Social. With our streaming content, we aim to provide a permanent home for high-quality news and entertainment that face discrimination by other channels and content delivery services.
“There is a lot of great content that simply can’t find an audience for unjust reasons, and we want to let these creators know they’ll soon have a guaranteed platform where they won’t be cancelled.”
While the announcement failed to reverse TMTG’s decline on the market, trading of its stock remains volatile. At one point on Tuesday, it trimmed its losses, before falling further.
In recent months TMTG (and Digital World, its merger partner) increasingly became seen as a so-called meme stock, boosted by internet memes – posted, in its case, on platforms including Truth Social – urging retail investors to buy into it.