Catturd (b. 1964) is the online identity of right-wing American Twitter shitposter and Internet troll Phillip Buchanan. The account is known for its scatological humor, as well as spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation. Buchanan lives in Wewahitchka, Florida, on a ‘ranch in the middle of nowhere.’
He is thrice-divorced. He married his first wife, whom he met at a gym when she was 19 and he was in his early twenties, in 1986. The marriage was annulled in 1988. By 1991, Buchanan had married and divorced another woman. His third marriage happened a few years later, while he was working at a post office. They parted in 1998 and divorced in 2002. Buchanan claims to have served in the US Army. In the 90s, he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and later fronted a band in Tallahassee, Florida.
In the 2010s, Buchanan began posting on blog platform Disqus under stories from websites such as Breitbart News. The Twitter handle @catturd had been taken in 2010, and denied from being the poster of the suspended account @CATTURD1. @catturd2 was created in September 2018, receiving retweets from Jack Posobiec, alt-right political activist, conspiracy theorist, and former Navy intelligence officer. Over a year later, Buchanan’s account had over 100,000 followers, and half a million by the end of 2020. Donald Trump retweeted Catturd seven times. Media Matters for America, a left-leaning 501 nonprofit media watchdog, accused Buchanan of violating Twitter’s platform manipulation policy, attempting to boost hashtags into the trending topics list.
When Elon Musk acquired Twitter, Buchanan was enthusiastic about the purchase, and the two had previously replied to each other on the platform. Buchanan praised Musk for plans to scale back Twitter’s content moderation, but claimed his account remained shadowbanned even after the purchase. Musk reached out personally to provide support. Later on, Buchanan tweeted that he was ‘100% wrong about [Elon Musk] changing Twitter. The new Twitter moderation council is just a bunch of far left fanatic groups who were never targeted here. No average Joes, no real Conservatives, no one to represent the PEOPLE ACTUALLY TARGETED!’
In March 2023, leaked internal documents from Twitter revealed that Catturd was among a handful of accounts having their reach artificially inflated by Twitter under Musk. The same month, Buchanan conducted a Twitter poll of a hypothetical 2024 Republican presidential primary between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, showing Trump winning 69%. This poll was presented by Trump at a rally and by Trump-affiliated super PAC MAGA Inc. on Twitter.
The Daily Omnivore 
Leave a comment