Catturd

Catturd (born September 18, 1964) is the online identity of right-wing^[1][2][3][4] American Twitter shitposter and Internet troll Phillip Buchanan.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} The account is known for its scatological humor, as well as spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation.^[10][11]

Catturd
Born	Phillip Buchanan (1964-09-18) September 18, 1964 (age 60)
Movement	Right-wing politics American Conservatism
Spouses	​ ​ (m. 1986; ann. 1988)​ ​ ​ (div. 1991)​ ​ ​ (div. 2002)​

Personal life

Buchanan was born on September 18, 1964.^[12] 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 20s, in September 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 and pursuing music. They separated around 1998 and divorced in 2002.^[13]

According to Buchanan, he has experienced homelessness and struggled with alcoholism. He decided to join social media at the age of 54 for an "artistic outlet" after losing the ability to play guitar due to developing arthritis in his fingers.^[14]

Buchanan said he served in the United States Army. In the 1990s, he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and later fronted a band in Tallahassee, Florida.^[13]

Buchanan lives in Wewahitchka, Florida, on a "ranch in the middle of nowhere".^[6][13][15]

Online activity

In the 2010s, Buchanan began posting on Disqus under stories from websites such as Breitbart News.^{[13][dubious – discuss]} The Twitter handle @catturd had been taken in 2010, and Catturd denied being the poster of the suspended account @CATTURD1. @catturd2 was created in September 2018. Over a year later, his account had over 100,000 followers, and half a million by the end of 2020. President Donald Trump retweeted Catturd seven times.^[13] Media Matters for America accused Buchanan of violating Twitter's platform manipulation policy, attempting to boost hashtags into the trending topics list.^[3]

When Elon Musk acquired Twitter, Buchanan was enthusiastic about the purchase; the two had also previously replied to each other on the platform.^[16][17] Buchanan praised Musk for plans to scale back Twitter's content moderation,^[18] but said his account remained shadowbanned even after the purchase. Musk reached out personally to provide support.^[19][20] Later on, Buchanan tweeted that he was "100% wrong about [Elon Musk] changing Twitter."^[21][22][23] 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.^[24][25]

The same month, Buchanan conducted a Twitter poll of a hypothetical 2024 Republican presidential primary between Trump and Florida governor 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.^[10][26]