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Truth Social Android App Not Approved on Google Play Store

The Truth social network app icon is seen in the IOS app store in this picture illustration taken February 21, 2022. (Reuters)
The Truth social network app icon is seen in the IOS app store in this picture illustration taken February 21, 2022. (Reuters)
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Truth Social Android App Not Approved on Google Play Store

The Truth social network app icon is seen in the IOS app store in this picture illustration taken February 21, 2022. (Reuters)
The Truth social network app icon is seen in the IOS app store in this picture illustration taken February 21, 2022. (Reuters)

Former US President Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social has not yet been approved for distribution on Alphabet Inc's Google Play Store due to insufficient content moderation, according to a Google spokesperson on Tuesday.

The delay marks a setback for the app, which launched in the Apple App Store on Feb. 21. Android phones comprise about 40% of the US smartphone market. Without the Google and Apple stores, there is no easy way for most smartphone users to download Truth Social.

“On August 19, we notified Truth Social of several violations of standard policies in their current app submission and reiterated that having effective systems for moderating user-generated content is a condition of our terms of service for any app to go live on Google Play,” Google said in a statement.

“Last week, Truth Social wrote back acknowledging our feedback and saying that they are working on addressing these issues.”

Google said it has expressed concerns to Truth Social about violations of its Play Store policies prohibiting content like physical threats and incitement to violence.

Truth Social parent company Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.

News of the Android delay was first reported by Axios.

Truth Social restored Trump's presence on social media more than a year after he was banned from Twitter Inc, Facebook and Alphabet Inc's YouTube following the Jan. 6, 2021 US Capitol riots, after he was accused of posting messages inciting violence.

TMTG has pledged to deliver an “engaging and censorship-free experience” on Truth Social, appealing to a base that feels its views around such hot-button topics such as the outcome of the 2020 presidential election have been scrubbed from mainstream tech platforms.

TMTG is working with Hive, a San Francisco-based company that does AI-based content moderation, to flag sexually explicit content, hate speech, bullying and violent content on the app.

Human moderators decide what to do with the content Hive has flagged. While the scope of TMTG’s human moderation efforts is unclear, according to a posting on the TMTG website, the company is hiring a “community content administrator” whose job will include reviewing “user-posted content on Truth Social verifying it adheres to established community guidelines.”

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In Canada Lake, Robot Learns to Mine without Disrupting Marine Life 

A Impossible Metals worker workers help positioning the Eureka II, a robotic underwater vehicle while lifting up from the water in Collingwood, Ontario, on May 1, 2025. (AFP)
A Impossible Metals worker workers help positioning the Eureka II, a robotic underwater vehicle while lifting up from the water in Collingwood, Ontario, on May 1, 2025. (AFP)
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In Canada Lake, Robot Learns to Mine without Disrupting Marine Life 

A Impossible Metals worker workers help positioning the Eureka II, a robotic underwater vehicle while lifting up from the water in Collingwood, Ontario, on May 1, 2025. (AFP)
A Impossible Metals worker workers help positioning the Eureka II, a robotic underwater vehicle while lifting up from the water in Collingwood, Ontario, on May 1, 2025. (AFP)

Three robotic arms extended under the water in a Canadian lake, delicately selecting pebbles from the bed, before storing them back inside the machine.

The exercise was part of a series of tests the robot was undergoing before planned deployment in the ocean, where its operators hope the machine can transform the search for the world's most sought-after metals.

The robot was made by Impossible Metals, a company founded in California in 2020, which says it is trying to develop technology that allows the seabed to be harvested with limited ecological disruption.

Conventional underwater harvesting involves scooping up huge amounts of material in search of potato-sized things called poly-metallic nodules.

These nodules contain nickel, copper, cobalt, or other metals needed for electric vehicle batteries, among other key products.

Impossible Metals' co-founder Jason Gillham told AFP his company's robot looks for the nodules "in a selective way."

The prototype, being tested in the province of Ontario, remains stationary in the water, hovering over the lake bottom.

In a lab, company staff monitor the yellow robot on screens, using what looks like a video game console to direct its movements.

Using lights, cameras and artificial intelligence, the robot tries to identify the sought-after nodules while leaving aquatic life, such as octopuses' eggs, coral, or sponges, undisturbed.

- 'A bit like bulldozers' -

In a first for the nascent sector, Impossible Metals has requested a permit from US President Donald Trump to use its robot in American waters around Samoa, in the Pacific.

The company is hoping that its promise of limited ecological disruption will give it added appeal.

Competitors, like The Metals Company, use giant machines that roll along the seabed and suck up the nodules, a highly controversial technique.

Douglas McCauley, a marine biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told AFP this method scoops up ocean floor using collectors or excavators, "a bit like bulldozers," he explained.

Everything is then brought up to ships, where the nodules are separated from waste, which is tossed back into the ocean.

This creates large plumes of sediment and toxins with a multitude of potential impacts, he said.

A less invasive approach, like that advocated by Impossible Metals, would reduce the risk of environmental damage, McCauley explained.

But he noted lighter-touch harvesting is not without risk.

The nodules themselves also harbor living organisms, and removing them even with a selective technique, involves destroying the habitat, he said.

Impossible Metals admits its technology cannot detect microscopic life, but the company claims to have a policy of leaving 60 percent of the nodules untouched.

McCauley is unconvinced, explaining "ecosystems in the deep ocean are especially fragile and sensitive."

"Life down there moves very slowly, so they reproduce very slowly, they grow very slowly."

Duncan Currie of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition said it was impossible to assess the impact of any deep sea harvesting.

"We don't know enough yet either in terms of the biodiversity and the ecosystem down there," he told AFP.

According to the international scientific initiative Ocean Census, only 250,000 species are known, out of the two million that are estimated to populate the oceans.

- High demand -

Mining is "always going to have some impact," said Impossible Metals chief executive and co-founder Oliver Gunasekara, who has spent most of his career in the semiconductor field.

But, he added, "we need a lot more critical minerals, as we want to electrify everything."

Illustrating the global rush toward underwater mining, Impossible Metals has raised US$15 million from investors to build and test a first series of its Eureka 3 robot in 2026.

The commercial version will be the size of a shipping container and will expand from three to 16 arms, and its battery will grow from 14 to nearly 200 kilowatt-hours.

The robot will be fully autonomous and self-propel, without cables or tethers to the surface, and be equipped with sensors.

While awaiting the US green light, the company hopes to finalize its technology within two to three years, conduct ocean tests, build a fleet, and operate through partnerships elsewhere in the world.