Donald Trump's new social media platform, Truth Social, has already been plagued with signup issues and a long waitlist barring most people from even using the service.
But, perhaps that's the price users must pay for a truly "free speech" platform, right?
Well, just one day into this very soft-launch of Truth Social and even its "free speech" branding is – perhaps, unsurprisingly – falling apart.
Web developer Matt Ortega signed up for the Truth Social service and soon discovered an email from Truth Social telling him that his account had been banned. Ortega confirmed the authenticity of the email and ban in a private message to Mashable.
Furthermore, Ortega had never posted a single thing to Truth Social as his account was one of the many still on the waitlist to join. Ortega was banned simply because of the username he used to sign up for the platform: @DevinNunesCow.
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If that username sounds familiar, it's because @DevinNunesCow is similar to the name of a Twitter parody account, @DevinCow, that gained notoriety when its creator was sued by then-Republican Rep. Devin Nunes for pretending to be a cow owned by the Congressman. Nunes claimed the account, among others, were defamatory.
The account was created in reference to a report from Esquire detailing how the former Congressman from California has ownership in a family dairy farm based in Iowa, which he had kept secret.
If you're wondering what Nunes is up to now, he left Congress to become the CEO of Truth Social's parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group.
"Your account @DevinNunesCow has been banned," reads the subject of the Truth Social email received by Ortega. "After careful review, we have decided to delete your account permanently due to Truth Social community guideline violations."
So, to be clear, a user was banned from Trump's new "free speech" social media platform for registering a username that Truth Social's CEO does not like.
Interestingly, Truth Social has specific rules limiting speech on the platform when it involves Trump and others who own the platform. When Truth Social was first announced last year, the site's terms of services explicitly prohibited "disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the Site."
And Ortega's not the only one who has already experienced the limits of Truth Social's "free speech," albeit under very different circumstances.
Right-wing personality Stew Peters is claiming he was censored on Truth Social, too. Unlike Ortega, Peters already has an account set up on Trump's platform and is already posting content. According to Peters, his post calling for the execution of those responsible for the COVID-19 vaccine, was labeled as "sensitive content" by Truth Social, requiring users to go through an extra step to view the content in the post.
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The vaccines that are available in the U.S. were developed under the Trump administration, and is something Trump continues to tout as a success.
"I'm ALREADY being censored on Truth Social," wrote Peters on the chat service Telegram. "Free Speech isn't free."
While the action taken against Peters' post may seem fair, this is the very kind of platform behavior Trump's supporters are seeking to escape when they start using Truth Social. Trump's most diehard fans may soon be in for a rude awakening when they find out Truth Social's "free speech" rules are likely no different from the Big Tech companies they seek to replace, like Twitter.
In fact, in some ways, Truth Social is going to be even more restrictive on speech. (A ban on "excessive use of capital letters?" REALLY?)
UPDATE: Feb. 22, 2022, 8:00 p.m. EST According to new information provided by Matt Ortega, the exact match username @DevinCow, was blocked from being registered on Truth Social, which is why he registered @DevinNunesCow. In addition, the post has been updated to make it clear that the handle for the infamous Twitter account is @DevinCow. Ortega is not associated with that Twitter account.
