Meet Rebekah Mercer, the deep-pocketed co-founder of Parler, a controversial conservative social network

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Mecer is the daughter of Robert Mercer, a hedge fund manager and co-founder of the now defunct political data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica. The Mercers have been prominent supporters of President Donald Trump and conservative causes.

“John and I started Speaking to provide a neutral platform for free speech, as our founders intended, and also to create a social media environment that would protect data privacy,” Mercer said in a press release on the platform. “The ever-growing tyranny and pride of our tech overlords demands that someone lead the fight against data mining and for the protection of free speech online. That someone is Speaking, a beacon for all who value their freedom, freedom of speech and privacy. . “

Speak, founded in 2018 by Mercer, John Matze and Jared Thomson, promotes itself as “unbiased social media” and a place where people can “speak freely and speak out openly without fear of being” misrepresented “for your views.” , according to its website and App Store description. It looks like a mashup of Twitter and Instagram, with its main feed, number of followers, and ways to share posts and links.

The platform became the most downloaded free app in Apple’s App Store on the weekend of November 8 – the day mainstream media called for Joe Biden to be elected.

Talking mainly attracts conservative users. Some of Talk’s more active users include Fox News host Sean Hannity, radio personality Mark Levin, far-right activist Laura Loomer, Senator Ted Cruz, and Congressman Devin Nunes. Eric Trump and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign also have accounts on the platform.

A significant number of users have followed these voices on the platform, fueled by complaints about actions taken by major social media platforms against election disinformation and bogus allegations of election fraud, such as challenging elections. allegations with fact-check labels.

Twitter (TWTR), more … than Facebook (FB), took aggressive action on many of President Trump’s tweets during the election. At one point, the social network applied warning labels to more than a third of Trump’s tweets after the polls closed. Some of Trump’s tweets were hidden behind a warning label that users had to click before they could read what they were saying.

With big tech companies reporting fake news, Parler has become free-for-all for conservative voices. According to an ADL report released Thursday, members of the Proud Boys, QAnon conspiracy theorists, anti-government extremists and white supremacists are all openly promoting their views on Speaking. “Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of bigotry are also easy to find,” ADL said.

Who is Rebekah Mercer?

For years, the Mercers have been the primary benefactors of conservative groups, ranging from the Heritage Foundation think tank, where Rebekah Mercer sits on the board, to organizations that have produced anti-Hillary-Clinton books and films.

But the family emerged in national politics during the 2016 election cycle when Robert Mercer, who helped oversee hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, and his wife Diane, donated more than $ 23 million to groups that supported conservative candidates, according to a count by the non-partisan. Center for Responsive Policy.

In that election, the Mercers funded a super PAC that initially supported Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination before backing Trump.

Media shy Rebekah Mercer is said to have persuaded the then-Trump candidate to overhaul his campaign organization and hire Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway to help him launch his presidential bid in the home stretch of the 2016 election Rebekah Mercer then served on the executive committee of Trump’s transition team,

Rebekah Mercer did not respond to a request for comment. Robert Mercer walked away from Renaissance in 2017.

– CNN’s Fredreka Schouten and Kaya Yurieff contributed to this report

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