Trump’s stupid, petulant, legally dubious Mastodon clone, Truth Social, already botched its rollout to the surprise of virtually no one. Not only that, but it didn’t even take a full week for the site to backslide on its promise of providing a Twitter alternative for MAGA cultists and brave, stalwart defenders of “free speech,” AKA people who think they should be able to post racial epithets online free of consequence. Once again, we have Devin Nunes’ cow to credit for exposing right-wing hypocrisy.
A ban on bovines —
Yesterday, web developer Matt Ortega posted a screenshot of an email notification received from Truth Social informing him that his account, @DevinNunesCow, had been banned from the platform. For reference: Devin Nunes is prominent Trump sycophant, former U.S. congressperson, and current CEO of Truth Social. Devin Nunes’ cow is fictional, yet still rose to viral fame on Twitter as @DevinCow. Although the original account was not created by Ortega, the joke still angered Nunes so badly he attempted to file a defamation lawsuit against the account’s creator. Nunes was about as successful as Truth Social’s debut in that endeavor, and @DevinCow still exists on Twitter. Alas, Ortega’s @DevinNunesCow does not, but it was sacrificed for a good cause.
It’s never about free speech —
The Devin Nunes Cow sequel reinforces the fact that platforms like Truth Social, Getter, and Frank (you know, the MyPillow Guy’s Trump-friendly project) are never about “protecting free speech” or patriotism or whatever — they are focused solely on further consolidating MAGA cultists into their own echo chambers while the sites’ owners wring out whatever profits and personal data they can muster. If Truth Social truly respected free speech, Ortega’s @DevinNunesCow would still be allowed to wander its vast social media wasteland. Instead, Devin Nunes got his lil’ feelings hurt once again, and it’s all thanks to a bovine animal that doesn’t exist.
