Last week former reality TV star Donald Trump got tongues wagging when his firm the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) announced Truth Social.

Billed as “America’s ‘Big Tent’ social media platform that encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation”, the platform appears to have stoked the ire of the Software Freedom Conservancy.

This organisation claims that TMTG launched a test site based on the AGPLv3 Mastodon software platform. This software allows anybody to create a social network whether it be for a specific game, a cause close to your heart or even an alternative to the massive social media platforms you may have been kicked off of in 2021.

Importantly, under the provisions of AGPLv3, anybody who has licensed the Free and open-source software (FOSS) must share the source code of the website with users.

“Many users were able to create accounts and use it — briefly. However, when you put any site on the Internet licensed under AGPLv3, the AGPLv3 requires that you provide (to every user) an opportunity to receive the entire Corresponding Source for the website based on that code. These early users did not receive that source code, and Trump’s Group is currently ignoring their very public requests for it,” wrote Software Freedom Conservancy policy fellow and hacker-in-residence, Bradley Kuhn.

In light of this, the SFC has said that TMTG has 30 days to provide the source code for its test site and, if it doesn’t, its rights and permissions in the software will be permanently terminated.

“That’s how AGPLv3’s cure provision works — no exceptions — even if you’re a real estate mogul, reality television star, or even a former POTUS,” added Kuhn. “We will be following this issue very closely and insisting that Trump’s Group give the Corresponding Source to all who use the site”.

While we doubt TMTG wants to make its source code available to all, it doesn’t have much of a choice here.