Donald Trump’s new “free speech” social media app, ‘Truth Social’ is already censoring content they do not like.
According to reports, Matt Ortega, a web developer was banned for trying to make an account called @DevinNunesCow inspired by the parody Twitter account @DevinCow.
Ortega is not affiliated with the ‘Devin Cow’ Twitter account.
Devin Nunes, a former Republican congressman who currently serves as the CEO for Trump Media and Technology Group, the group behind ‘Truth Social,’ tried to file a defamation lawsuit against the owner of the @DevinCow account in March 2019.
Ortega tweeted on Tuesday that after he tried to make the account, he received an email from ‘Truth Social’ saying that the account was permanently banned.
“Your account @DevinNunesCow has been banned,” the email reads. “After careful review, we have decided to delete your account permanently due to Truth Social community guideline violations.”
It is unclear which guideline Ortega violated. But, Truth Social terms of service do not allow anyone to “disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the Site.”
Ortega, like many others who tried to sign up for the app, was placed on a waitlist after he encountered multiple server errors. So, he was banned without making a single post.
“I was never able to log in, leaving me to believe the account was banned simply for the username mocking the media company’s CEO with a well known meme,” he told Business Insider.
Trump announced plans in October to launch Truth Social saying it would “stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech,” amid conservative complaints that they were being censored.
The app became available for download in the Apple App Store on Sunday night but some users were having difficulties and the app reportedly experienced an outage shortly after launch.
