The public offering of former US President Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, has been delayed due to a federal investigation.
Special purpose buyout firm Digital World Acquisition Corp has asked its shareholders to delay the deadline to complete a merger deal with the company behind former President Donald Trump’s platform Truth Social until 2023, due to federal investigations into the deal.
With its two-year term coming to an end, the deadline by which the company is expected to complete a deal or refinance to investors, DWAC has requested a one-year extension through September 8, 2023, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday.
The company warned that this deadline may not be sufficient, noting that investigations may hinder its ability to obtain regulatory approval, which it said “may require us to liquidate.”
In October, the company announced plans to merge with a new company called Trump Media and Technology Group (TMGT), to list the former president’s subsidiary on the stock exchange.
The company expressed its concerns that the investigations “could lead to the imposition of significant penalties, injunctions, obstruction of business, and damage to the company’s reputation, among other penalties.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating DWAC in December after suspicions emerged that company executives had held talks with TMGT ahead of the special purpose buyout company’s initial public offering, which violates regulations that prohibit this type of company from reaching Merger agreements prior to raising funds.
As it turned out last month, the company was the subject of a criminal investigation by the Ministry of Justice, as it was stated in the regulatory filings that the members of the company’s board of directors had received summons from the jury, to investigate about their contact with many individuals, in addition to obtaining information about the unknown private equity company, Rocket One. Capital, which is headquartered in Miami.
Launching Truth Social
On Wednesday, October 21, 2021, former US President Donald Trump announced the launch of his own social network, “Truth Social”.
Trump said in a statement – issued at the time -: “I created TruthSocial and the Trump Media and Technology Group to stand up to the tyranny of technology giants,” noting that his new platform will be launched beta in November 2021, to become available to the public in the first quarter of next year (2022). ), according to Agence France-Presse.
The former president added that Silicon Valley’s biggest corporations “used their unilateral power to silence dissident voices in America.”
The three social media giants, “Facebook”, “Twitter” and “YouTube”, imposed a ban on the Republican billionaire in the wake of the bloody attack launched by a group of his supporters on the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in an attempt to prevent Congress from ratifying On the victory of his opponent, Joe Biden, for the presidency.
Prior to his ban, Trump had nearly 89 million followers on Twitter, 35 million on Facebook, and 24 million on Instagram.
Trump has always used Twitter to communicate with his supporters, and many of the key decisions he made while he was president, the dismissals and appointments he made, were revealed through this platform.
For several months, the former president has been promising his supporters to launch his own social media platform.
According to the statement, during the trial period that started last November, those who wish to open an account on the “Truth Social” platform must receive an “invitation” from it after registering their name on a waiting list on a website designated for this purpose. Then registration becomes available to everyone in the first quarter of 2022, as mentioned at the time.
The statement pointed out that the new media arm of the former president, the Trump Group for Media and Technology, will also provide a video-on-demand service with entertainment programs and “non-wake” podcasts, meaning that is against liberal values.
On the evening of Sunday, February 21, 2022, Donald Trump’s new social network, “Truth Social”, began operating gradually.