(Reuters) – Truth Social, the social network of former U.S. President Donald Trump, will advertise video-sharing company Rumble’s new advertising platform, the companies said on Tuesday.

The move comes as Trump’s company attempts to circumvent restrictions imposed by big tech companies such as Google.

The announcement reflects an increasingly close relationship between Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the parent company of Truth Social, and Rumble, a Canadian video-sharing platform serving conservative interests.

The two parties had already reached a “technology and cloud services” agreement in December, which included video and streaming for Truth Social.

Both Rumble and TMTG position themselves as alternatives to big tech companies; in announcing its new advertising platform, Rumble described the tool as competing with Google’s AdSense and Ad Exchange advertising programs.

Rumble had also been working with TMTG for months in a role described internally as an important strategic partnership, but not clearly defined for employees, according to two people with knowledge of TMTG’s operations.

Truth Social brought Trump back to social media more than a year after he was banned from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube following the January 6, 2021 invasion of the U.S. Capitol.

The platform was launched on the Apple App Store on February 21 and is not yet available on the Google Play Store for Android users.

Advertising is essential to TMTG’s business. In a May 27 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Digital World Acquisition, the blank check company with which TMTG agreed to a merger, said the group “can count on selling advertising for the vast majority of income”.

As of August 23, Trump had 3.89 million followers on Truth Social, compared to more than 88 million on Twitter when he was banned.

(By Helen Coster and Akash Sriram)