Technology

Stock in Trump-linked SPAC falls after Truth Social executives resign

Stock in the SPAC that is bringing former President Trump’s social media platform Truth Social public fell Monday after top executives reportedly resigned from the company. 

Stock in the SPAC, Digital Word Acquisition Corp, fell 14 percent in premarket trading Monday, Yahoo reported.

The fall came after chief of technology Josh Adams and chief of product development Billy Boozer resigned, which Reuters first reported. Chief legal officer Lori Heyer-Bednar also resigned, according to a report from Politico.

The drop also came after Tesla CEO Elon Musk became the largest outside shareholder of Twitter, acquiring a 9.2 percent stake in the company. Twitter shares rose more than 20 percent after the news.

Truth Social’s plunging stock and top executive resignations add to the growing list of troubles plaguing the rollout of Truth Social.

The app was released in the Apple app store on Feb. 20. It was the most downloaded free app in the Apple store initially, but within just 20 days fell down to number 116. As of Monday afternoon, the app didn’t appear to be anywhere in the top 200 most downloaded free apps listed by Apple. 

A spokesperson for Truth Social’s parent company, Trump Media and Technology Group, did not respond to a request for comment. 

Truth Social launched as an alternative platform for users upset with the content moderation policies on mainstream platforms such as Twitter. 

But the platform has largely been unusable with long wait times for users to gain access on a wait list. Users who tried to get on the platform after the initial beta launch were largely placed on a waiting list. A reporter for The Hill who tried to make an account in February is still locked in on the list with more than 790,000 potential users ahead of them.