Truth Social, former President Donald Trump’s social network, explained that it pulls in RSS feeds of “well-known content creators” to clamp down on bogus impersonator accounts following a report that a Fox News account was not authorized or run by the network.
In a post on April 13, Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes announced that the RSS feed was live on the network. The feed aggregator automatically posts links from the Fox News website to Truth Social.
“Great to have RSS feed for @FoxNews now LIVE here on TRUTH! This adds to @OAN and @NewsMax,” Nunes said.
“We are not on Truth Social,” a Fox News spokesperson told Axios on Tuesday. A spokesperson for the network subsequently confirmed the Axios report to the Washington Examiner.
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While there are RSS feed aggregator accounts, such as those for NASA and TMZ, listed on Truth Social’s recommended accounts, they do not appear to be set up by the organizations themselves. Both NASA and TMZ confirmed to the Washington Examiner that they had not created the accounts on the platform.
Confusion appears to have arisen because the Fox News account is not marked as an aggregator or bot and is marked as verified. The TMZ feed, by comparison, is marked at the top as a “BOT” and is also not verified.
“Truth Social is committed to preventing impersonator accounts, so we verify RSS feeds run by well-known content creators,” a Trump Media and Technology Group spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “There is no other honest way to interpret this basic service we provide for our users.”
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There are several impersonators on the platform pretending to be affiliated with government agencies, according to Daily Dot. These include accounts for the FBI, CIA, several military branches, and the New York City Police Department.
The network has struggled to maintain a steady growth rate since its late February release. The app saw a 93% decrease in sign-ups in its first month, according to data released in late March. It continues to struggle with a long waitlist and is currently unavailable on Android devices. Two of the company’s executives resigned on April 5.
Editor’s note: This story has been edited since its initial publication.
