By now, you know that Donald Trump is making plans for his own social media platform. Well, he may have some competition. Trump BFF and MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell recently announced he’s rolling out a new social media platform of his own.
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, the Trump ally who pushed voter-fraud conspiracy theories, has just offered a first glimpse at his new social-media site.
The site, currently a static webpage, is called Frank. Lindell previously told Insider's Natasha Dailey in early March that the site would be called Vocl.
Frank is set to launch fully in 10 to 14 days, Lindell told "The Eric Metaxas Radio Show" on Tuesday.
Lindell has been secretly creating his own social-media platform over the past four years, he said earlier this month.
Lindell bills Frank as “the voice of free speech.” It comes from the definition of “frank”—being “forthright and sincere,” something “political correctness” has supposedly made impossible. It will be a mix of Twitter and YouTube that will allow users to post videos and livestreams, as well as news—all in the name of finding “community and fellowship with like-minded Americans.” Sounds like Lindell has tacitly admitted there’s no chance of him ever returning to Twitter; he lost his account there for repeatedly promoting the Big Lie.
Don’t bet on Frank’s day in the sun lasting long. Methinks that it will run into the same shoal as Gab and Parler. Both openly boasted a laissez-faire approach to moderation that made them havens for trolling and hate speech. Parler, for instance, was deplatformed for allowing content that blatantly violated its own TOS.
So here’s the $64,000 question: How long will Frank, as well as Trump’s planned platform, last before it ultimately gets deplatformed? I know, I know, Gab has survived despite being blackballed from iPhones and Androids. But in the wake of Jan. 6, we can expect any and all upstream providers to be quick to pull the plug. And if they do, dollars to donuts Lindell won’t have a leg to stand on.