Fact Check: "Truth Social went down immediately after Trump's announcement of military strikes."
What We Know
On June 22, 2023, President Donald Trump announced that the United States had conducted airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, specifically targeting sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. His announcement was made on Truth Social at 7:46 PM ET, where he described the operation as a "very successful attack" (Wired). Shortly after this announcement, at approximately 8 PM ET, users began reporting issues accessing Truth Social, with many receiving error messages stating, “Network failed. Please try again” (Wired, Economic Times).
DownDetector, a website that tracks service outages, noted a significant spike in reports of Truth Social being down around the same time as Trump's announcement (Wired). Additionally, NetBlocks, an organization that monitors internet accessibility, confirmed that Truth Social was experiencing international outages for many users, stating that the incident was not related to country-level internet disruptions (Wired).
Analysis
The claim that Truth Social went down immediately after Trump's announcement of military strikes is supported by multiple sources. The timing of the outage aligns closely with Trump's announcement, which was made at 7:46 PM ET, followed by user reports of access issues starting around 8 PM ET (Wired, Economic Times).
The reliability of the sources reporting this incident is generally high. Wired, for instance, is known for its technology journalism and has a reputation for thorough fact-checking. The Economic Times is a well-established publication that covers international news, adding credibility to their reporting on the incident. Furthermore, DownDetector and NetBlocks are reputable platforms for tracking service outages and internet accessibility, respectively, which lends additional weight to the claims of an outage.
However, it is important to note that while the outage coincided with Trump's announcement, the exact cause of the outage was not confirmed by Truth Social at the time, leaving room for speculation about whether the outage was directly related to the announcement or due to other technical issues (Wired, Economic Times).
Conclusion
The claim that Truth Social went down immediately after Trump's announcement of military strikes is True. The timing of the outage aligns closely with the announcement, and multiple credible sources corroborate the occurrence of the outage shortly after the announcement was made. While the specific cause of the outage remains unverified, the evidence strongly supports the claim.
