MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell says his upcoming social media site, launching in the coming weeks, is prepared for an influx of users.
"It is going to be the most safest, securest and able to handle a hundred, two hundred, a billion people," Lindell said about the website last Friday during the War Room Pandemic podcast, helmed by former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
Lindell is a businessman, donor and staunch supporter of former President Trump, who was permanently suspended from Twitter in January for repeatedly violating its misinformation policies and spreading election abuse conspiracies.
Earlier this month, Lindell revealed plans to launch a new "free speech" social network that was described as being a mixture of YouTube and Twitter.
Its domain currently shows a static webpage claiming the project—named Frank—will attract "major influencers" and "average Americans" and let them post videos, articles and information, seemingly with a lax approach to content moderation.
Lindell said this month the site would be called Vocl but a more recent appearance on The Eric Metaxas Radio Show confirmed it would be named Frank—following a one-word pattern set by other "free speech" services such as Parler and Gab.
It is unclear at the time of writing how many people are involved in the site's creation, how it is being funded and when it will launch publicly, but it comes after Lindell was named in a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems after the MyPillow CEO falsely claimed it helped rig the 2020 election in Biden's favor.
Read more
Sidney Powell Dismisses Lawsuit 'Fake News,' Doubles Down on Conspiracies
Mike Lindell Says Supreme Court Will Have to Take Up Election Fraud Case
Sidney Powell Uses Same Defamation Defense as Tucker Carlson's Fox Show
Lindell has been contacted for comment by Newsweek via MyPillow.
In his segment on Bannon's podcast last week—hosted via the YouTube clone Rumble—Lindell said the site will be hosted on self-bought servers in order to stop takedowns by technology giants such as Amazon, Apple, YouTube and Google. As such, it remains unclear if the new social platform expects to have an iOS or Android app.
Lindell said: "None of these guys are going to be able to take this down. We're gonna all come over there. All the influencers... all these people that can't say on their podcasts the word 'Dominion,' or they can't say 'vaccine, a vaccine is bad for you.'
"They are going to be able to speak out and speak freely and it's going to be amazing. The voices of hundreds of millions of people are going to be heard."
The existing social media platform Parler, which became widely popular among Trump supporters and conservative personalities throughout the last year, was taken offline in late January 2021 after the January 6 Capitol riot. Amazon Web Service took the main website offline, while its app was removed from stores by Apple and Google.
Parler, since returned to the web, faced significant backlash last week after it emerged the website's moderation team had referred user posts about the riot to the FBI.
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell waits outside the West Wing of the White House before entering on January 15, 2021 in Washington, DC. Lindell claims to be launching his own social network named Frank. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell waits outside the West Wing of the White House before entering on January 15, 2021 in Washington, DC. Lindell claims to be launching his own social network named Frank. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
