Truth Social accuses Threads of censoring conservative content

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As users sign on to Meta’s new Threads platform, Florida-based Truth Social is already criticizing the network for censoring conservatives.

“Meta — owner of Facebook and Instagram — recently launched a new social media platform, Threads. In true Big Tech fashion, Threads began censoring conservatives within a few hours of launching,” reads an email to all Truth Social subscribers. “Threads already looks like just another Big Tech censorship tool. But rest assured, Truth Social will always be a haven for free speech.”

The email links to the Truth Social page for DC Draino, the online handle for Rogan O’Handley. There, O’Handley said he opened a Threads account and posted, “We are LIVE on threads and ready to expose (President Joe) Biden’s corrupt government.”

The post and account were flagged with a message that it “repeatedly posted false information that was reviewed by independent fact-checkers or went against our Community Guidelines.”

But Truth Social, a network launched by former President Donald Trump, has notably come under fire for censoring content as well. A report from Public Citizen found the platform censored everything from coverage of the Jan. 6 Committee hearings to links to Breitbart.

The Sarasota-based company, led by former U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, was launched as an alternative platform to Twitter and Facebook after Trump was suspended on those platforms following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Of note, both platforms have since lifted suspensions on Trump. But Trump has exclusively used the Truth Social platform even as his presidential campaign continues to use accounts on both Twitter and Facebook.

Threads has widely been seen as a direct competitor to Twitter, with Elon Musk, owner of Twitter’s parent company X, already threatening a lawsuit against Meta. Musk’s attorneys claim Meta poached Twitter employees and used trade secrets in developing the new platform.

Twitter under Musk has sold itself as an anti-censorship platform as well, with Musk restoring accounts beyond Trump who had been suspended for posting misinformation. But he has also come under fire for censoring content, including declaring the term “cisgender” is a slur.