Google’s Move to Include Truth Social in App Store Buoys Investor Confidence

The shares of the cash-rich special purpose acquisition company that seeks to merge with former President Donald J. Trump’s social media company surged on Thursday after Google said it would allow Trump Media Technology Group’s flagship product to appear in its app store.

The stock of that SPAC, Digital World Acquisition Corp., initially rose roughly 20 percent to just over $19 a share — the highest in nearly a month. Shares of Digital World have come under pressure because of investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors that threaten the completion of the deal.

The decision by Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to permit Trump Media’s Truth Social app to be downloaded from the Google Play Store was announced late Wednesday. The move was something of an about face for the tech giant, which had said it would not permit downloads of the Twitter-like social media app until it took steps to remove content that promoted violence.

But in a statement on Wednesday, Google said that an app was permitted onto the platform as long as it complied with guidelines “to effectively moderate user-generated content and remove objectionable posts such as those that incite violence.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/business/truth-social-google-digital-world.html