MeWe markets itself as the “anti-Facebook” platform to attract new subscribers who are looking for greener pastures in the social online space. Does that same anti-Facebook sentiment reflect upon MeWe CEO, Mark Weinstein? His donations to the Democratic Party paint a different picture.
I’d like to first disclose that I have a MeWe account and actually really like the functionality and experience of the platform. It feels a lot like putting a modern social media spin on the days of online forums. That being said, I’m treading lightly at the moment as MeWe begins to grow into a substantial contender in the social media space. And I have a few concerns…
Online censorship is on the rise, and in recent events the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has been banned by multiple social media platforms in a coordinated attack by big tech. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, are just a few of the social media platforms that have either permanently banned President Trump, or limited his ability to post.
This has led to a movement of millions of Trump supporters who are looking for social media alternatives that are more free-speech friendly. MeWe is one of those options that keeps popping up as a viable alternative.
If history has told us anything, it’s that the Democratic Party is the party of censorship and privacy intrusion. So, then why is Weinstein donating to the Democratic Party? During a podcast on, The Real Side with Joe Messina, he claims to be Libertarian.
However, his political donation history suggests otherwise. A quick check via the public database of political donations, and it can be revealed how Weinstein votes with his money.
Dating back to 2018, Weinstein donated to the following Democratic campaigns:
- Giffords PAC
- Mark Kelly for Senate
- Democratic National Committee
- Amy for America – Presidential
- Biden for President
- Win the Era PAC
- Schiff for Congress
Weinstein’s last donation was for Joe Biden on election day 2020. And in a sea of Democratic party donations, there are only two donations made to the Republican Party on 5/27/20:
- Donald Trump for President
- Winred PAC
Why only two donations to the Republican Party on the same day? If Weinstein is truly a Libertarian as he claims, wouldn’t the donations be more balanced over time between political parties?
In my opinion, here are some possible reasons to explain the glaring inconsistency:
- Weinstein is a Democrat leftist using the Libertarian label to appear more inviting toward conservatives joining MeWe. Considering that there was an influx of conservatives joining MeWe in May 2020 after being banned for protesting quarantines. This could explain his two aberrant donations to Republicans that same month.
- Weinstein is truly a Libertarian and only donates to political parties/candidates for purely fiscal reasons in the interest of his business.
- Weinstein is surrounded by leftists in all of his inner circles and needs to show an upstanding Democrat donation record to keep in good standing… or be cancelled.
- Weinstein doesn’t understand the true definition of being a Libertarian, and only uses the label to sound cool around his liberal friends.
In addition to Weinstein’s political donations, he was also a contributor for far-left wing Huffington Post over several years. His articles are peppered with praise for Democrats (especially for Obama), and vitriol for Republicans. In one of his contributions he makes a statement as if Trump was to blame for the birther conspiracy of Obama…
“President Obama, who for several years during his presidency had to combat online stories (and Donald Trump) claiming his birth certificate was fake, saw the writing on the wall.”
The reality is, it was Hillary Clinton’s supporters that began the rumor after her campaign called Obama a muslim during the 2008 Presidential race. Trump simply rode the coattails of what the Clinton campaign had started. I believe a true Libertarian would know the history behind this and not leave that detail out.
Weinstein also wrote a piece for the UK news site, The Mirror, about the the influence that social media “fake news” had toward Trump’s victory of the 2016 presidential election. He says this in the article…
“Simple math shows that if you take Trump’s abundance of falsities and combine it with Facebook’s false headlines, the truth becomes an anomaly lost in a forest of fiction.”
Firstly, he fails to cite any of these supposed Trump “falsities.”
Secondly, only a true Democrat would believe the narrative that it was ‘Facebook’ and ‘fake news’ to blame for the 2016 election outcome. It couldn’t have been how fed up the American people were after 8 years of Obama? or, that no one liked Hillary? Fake news is still protected under the 1st amendment. Only Democrats believe that people must be safeguarded from fake news because they are too stupid to figure it out on their own.
I do find myself agreeing with Weinstein at times. I watched his Tedx talk and thought it hit on many great points in regards toward privacy. But I do find it surprising that in one breath he criticizes Facebook, Google, and big tech for violating our privacy and free-speech rights. Then in the next breath does a 180 and donates to the political party that these platforms support with millions of dollars in donations.
Perhaps Mark can answer: Why are all of these privacy violating platforms donating to the Democratic party?
Is MeWe the solution?
Before running to MeWe as your savior from tech censorship and privacy violation, one should consider who is running the company. How does the leadership position themselves politically and on social issues? Are their personal beliefs and actions consistent with that of the platform they provide? History has shown us that Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, disregarded the rights and privacy of users as the platform grew. Who is to say that MeWe won’t take the same path?
UPDATE: There have been reports that MeWe is banning pro-Trump groups flat-out since Biden took office. They’ve also just banned the gun emoji. I personally had this emoji attached to my profile in the interest description. Now it reads as “:gun:” in place of an actual image. See…
This begs the question, who is Weinstein currently collaborating with to clean up his platform for something as trivial as cartoon gun emojis? At this point, MeWe seems to be headed down the same path as Facebook and Twitter.
UPDATE: I found that MeWe confirmed it is banning all ‘Stop the Steal’ groups via a tweet they published (and deleted).
What about “stonk the steal” groups?
Are they also being banned? If so, can you get me a source?
The minute I see him censoring censuring conservatives I will drop WeMe for sure. Tired of all of these liberals that are destroying our country.
He can be a Democrat, Hindu, or transsomething, as long as there is no censorship …
That boat has sailed. Stop the steal groups being banned. Even the gun emoji was removed recently. Go read the MeWe Twitter account. They are literally asking leftist bloggers on Twitter to moderate and seek out groups/users in “violation.”
Is it really any surprise? I mean the jewish people as a whole are as democrat as blacks. That ain’t anti-semite or ‘racist’, it’s FACT! I just got offed from FB indefinitely for posting Hunters pic with a crack pipe in mouth & 2 in his underpants go figure. So I posted the same pics on MeWe as a test & still up 48hrs later. They yank it or start censoring & I’ll be off social media all together. Think back before it, life as a whole was so much better actualy. So now I just log in to see & scroll a few min, then off. Better things to do since we got that cuck in office.
American Jews, yes. But Jews in Israel are in a large majority as conservative. It’s basically a direct flip in terms of percentage ratio. They are conservative in regards to borders, language, culture, social issues. Lots of similarities to conservatives in the USA.
One of my buds got a good deal on a gun from a Jewish couple – the wife was vehemently anti-gun and insisted that hubby get rid of it, which my friend and I found incomprehensible. I think it was a Ruger that the husband’s grandfather’s gun used to resist the Nazis. Of all People, the Jews should be pro-self defense! I disagree though that Israeli conservatives are similar to American conservatives. American conservatives are cucked for the most part and have failed to conserve anything – as Vox Day observes – even the ladies’ room!
You and your friend found a women being anti-gun as being incomprehensible? That’s hilarious. I think it’s common knowledge that women are less gun-friendly than men are. Looks like she was able to pursued the husband in this case and you got a good deal. One way Israeli conservatives are different, is that in Israel one is required to serve in the army. This is because they have a small population and are surrounded by people that want to kill them. So while there are differences, even gun are considered a necessary tool for freedom. However, outside of the army, gun ownership in Israel is rare and not seen as a right for all. They don’t have a 2nd amendment like we do. I know because I lived there for 3 years.
Ah, that’s interesting. About Israel. Yes, I know women are more anti-gun than men. In theory, Jews should be the first to support gun rights, but alas many don’t. My. brother is completely cucked and wifey won’t even consider allowing a gun in the housed. He probably wouldn’t ever need it, upscale neighborhood and all that, but it’s still good to have just in case.
Only the Jewish Orthodox groups are more pro-gun. I know of many Chabad locations that will have arm guards on site during holidays and events. Most Jews in Israel do support gun rights, but they see it as more of a responsibility of the army. In Israel there are soldiers walking around all over the towns with semi-auto rifles because they are on duty and have to be in uniform and carrying their weapon at all times. We have a massive army, but rarely do you see soldiers walking around our towns armed with guns. In Israel private gun ownership for citizens isn’t really seen as a necessity, unless one lives in areas like Judea/Samaria where there is higher amounts of Arab activity and likelihood of an attack. I remember I went to the local gun range to ask the workers how I could obtain a carry permit while I was living there and I got a weird look and asked me why I wanted a gun. To me it was obvious. I want to be more in control of my protection and for my family. The USA is unique in that we are born to understand this is a fundamental right of ours. Other countries have a hard time grasping this. We are truly the wild west.
Pffft, all you have to do is look at the guy’s last name.
2% of the population shouldn’t control such a vast percentage of publishers, hollywood studios, media outlets, tech firms, etc. Start voting with your dollar.
There is a huge difference not being discussed here. Casual users of facebook have their data mined, curated and sold to make money for Zuck. But casual users of MeWe don’t make Weinstein any money at all. FB users are bombarded with ads and timeline manipulation and censorship. FB is even censoring private messages now. MeWe has no ads, no timeline manipulation and very little censorship. It’s not perfect, and Weinstein’s Democrat donations are troubling, but you’re not directly making him money just by using MeWe, like you are for Zuck on FB. For now it’s still a much better option.
Good points. However, that all hinges on whether he is selling our data in back room deals. And this would apply to any social platform that you sign up with an email, phone number, or profile info. The concern I have, is that if he is willing to donate to Democrats so often, the party of censorship and privacy intrusion, then why should I believe he won’t abuse users’ trust on MeWe? I can’t get over that conflict.
Pol Pot Mark is a thief. I have had many bans, mostly bc foreign terrorists didn’t love me telling them my drones have their pics and coordinates. Pol Pot is a serial spammer.
I stopped using MeWe when I realized that if Google and Apple were allowing them to have an app in their stores they must be complying with Leftist Tech Giant rules.
At this point, it’s a great and legitimate tell. Shouldn’t be overlooked at all.
Thank you for this article. So, GAB it is for now.
MeWe has already banned/deleted groups like Three Percenters, Q-anons, and various ‘Stop the Steal’ groups. One fellow contacted me to say he’d been permabanned from MeWe and he was only in a couple of groups, which included a couple 2A advocacy groups, a 3% group, and a ‘Stop the Steal’ group. So not just groups removed, but individuals too.
At this point, there’s only one operating social media on the internet, and that’s Gab.com — I would suggest if you haven’t already, get on there. Parler is toast and aint coming back.
I think Parler will try to make a revival, but it will be too late, and they may not be able to restore all user data. Plus the fact they relied on AWS so much and had no backup plan is VERY suspect.
Just like all social media our ability to remain on these platforms is determined by one thing – ACTIVISM! Can conservatives ORGANIZE? They’re OK with us using them to scream and holler at our government, democrats, the left, and the elites, but once we start forming Groups of 100K+ for the purpose of activism, well that would be unacceptable. That’s when these platforms take notice and begin to tamp us down. I have no doubt MeWe will do the same thing. Leftist social media handlers (the democrat political and media mob) will rain fury upon them the moment conservatives activism shows signs of becoming popular, trending. Then comes the efforts to shut it down. Shadow banning [still] being the number one tactic. If that fails, then comes full banning.
Censorship is the ‘socialist tool’ of the disingenuous and corrupt and should never be accepted in a Constitutional Republic or free society!
“However (political parties) may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
― George Washington
Thank you as I’m testing out alternatives to Facebook. Good to know!
The moment he starts banning, censoring and cancelling I will be gone. Until then, the requirement that people must be on board with me on everything is a step too far. I’ll keep my MeWe account until he adopts Facebook’s fascism.
Well, looks like MeWe just got rid of the gun emoji. And I’ve heard reports that groups are being deleted without warning.
He’s promised in several tweets that he’s deleting all ‘Stop the Steal ‘ groups on MeWe. People on MeWe have been confirming this.
Well, those accusations have been noticed and he posted a statement declaring them to be untrue. There are, in fact, several “Stop the Steal” groups active on MeWe, as a simple MeWe search demonstrates. I found this reassuring. I really don’t want to be bouncing all over the place, constantly downloading and re-uploading photos in a fruitless search for total purity.
They may not be deleting ALL of them, but they are being deleted at the request of the cancel mob. And usually the violation is just a one off-comment by some crazy user. I think it’s pathetic that MeWe is consulting the cancel culture mob of leftists on Twitter to seek out and find “violators” on their platform.
As well, because of more pressure from the cancel mob, MeWe has also gotten rid of their gun emoji. I’ve seen this movie before. And I’m not about to invest my time in a platform that relies on leftist Twitter users to moderate their content. The problem really is with MeWe being so easily manipulated in order to be in “good standing” with the App stores. I don’t think MeWe is special enough that anyone would join the platform if there wasn’t an app.
As a simple search demonstrates, there is only one Stop the Steal group on MeWe. It has 77 members, so it’s probably new and will be deleted as soon as it’s noticed. As I said MeWe has promised to delete all the ‘Stop the Steal’ groups. I saw multiple MeWe tweets on twitter promising to do so. (attachment) You say that someone posted a statement lying about this? Who did that? The MeWe president replied to my complaint about the political censoring, by ignoring it. (attachment)
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/966b5cb12e719a3f39670994c659ad37d178402ceb0d4c96f63ee778cbd2693f.png
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0ab57598b489de0ccac53611bfb32db4d7dc899b585eeb60ae1cf0fc416fa832.png
Not a very good example. His two donations to R nearly equal the donations to D. A quick look without a calculator says it’s less than 500 bucks over 3 years
I considered that. As I explain in the article, the only two Republican donations come on the same day in May. This was after a big uptick of conservative users came to MeWe after Facebook began banning them for organizing events in protest of nationwide lockdowns and mandates. That leads me to believe those two donations were purely for fiscal reasons to draw on more users. But if we look at the scope of donations and who he donated to, there is no doubt he is an extreme leftists at heart.
Number one, you don’t know the man’s heart, neither do I. Number 2, his politics shouldn’t matter to us as long as he offers a free speech platform and treats everyone the same regardless of politics. Number 3, I would hope that numbers 1 and 2 still mean something to us otherwise we are just as bad as the libs.
I’m wondering if you even read the article. I stated just that. His stance on privacy and what he DOES, is more important than who he donates to. I agree very much with his stance on privacy. As one of the options I cited, perhaps there is a possibility his donations are solely for fiscal reasons. If that is the case, then it’s a crapshoot on what we can trust from the guy if he is just in it for the $$.
I’ve been on MeWe for several years and I’m going to say this. you say that we don’t know what’s in the man’s heart. O.K., credit due. Also, since I have been there, I have not seen myself too much funny stuff, until recently….
As of late there have been a few groups that have just vanished without a trace, Trump groups, no explanation, just gone, all the members, everything…people are still there with their own pages, just the group is gone.
A lot of people are missing the pistol emoji now. some still have it, but seems it is gradually being removed….
Some people are reporting that they believe they are being shadowbanned…..
This is all rather new, and since Trump was booted from Twitter.
That all being said, One thing I have noticed, the mand can call himself a Libertarian all he wants, but when you donate Democrat the way he does, your a Democrat. Or a hard core sympathizer. Or you associate so much you have no choice but to take a side. Or be cancelled. Which means nothing good for the rest of us, clearly.
I have never seen once in my 58 years a Democrat or a sympathizer that ever did anything positive for a Conservative, and as things stand now, they will do nothing but try and destroy us. Bank on that.
Thanks for mentioning the emoji pistol. it’s also gone on my profile. Something as stupid and trivial as this should be a big red flag, simply because an emoji of a gun shouldn’t be a big deal. So the question also begs, who is Weinstein talking with behind the scenes in cleaning up his platform of “inappropriate”things.
The total donations in the list is around $7300. With only $2000 going to Republicans and the rest going to Democrats. The picture seems clear to me how this man will run his platform in the future when he has enough users to not care at all about right leaning people anymore.
Precisely. And as I pointed out in the article, the only two Repub donations were done on the same day. Suggesting it was a move to cover up his clear record of straight Dem donations. The guy donated to Adam Schiff’s campaign in the middle of the Russia hoax. If he were truly a Libertarian I’d expect to see donations to more moderate Democrats. Like Tulsi Gabbard when she ran in the primary for President.
Great article! I’ve been looking for a write 😉 leaning tech site for ages. I love reading about gadgets but it seems like every tech site and his dog has this really irritating leftie bias.
Thanks for your viewership! Right now this is a hobby of mine, but it may become bigger as more support grows for patriotic tech sites like this.
I think it’s inevitable as Big Tech accelerate the migration to alt tech by shooting themselves in the foot. I found your site thanks to the Andrew Torba reposting you.
Yeah, I saw that my Gab feed is blowing up. Grateful he saw the research I’ve done. And yes, for tech sites, the problem is all the big ones are owned by big tech companies that spew leftist ideology through every facet of the websites.
Are you on Telegram?
I was but had to delete my account. Got thrown into massive spam groups and it got out of hand before I could block. I’ll create another account eventually. I deleted WhatsApp, so currently using Signal for messaging.
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/birther-movement-founder-trump-clinton-228304 disagrees with the idea that it was Clinton or her campaign that started the rumour
Ok. I’m just trying to find info on the MeWe messaging app but keep getting sidetracked with all this political stuff. I don’t care what the owner’s political affiliation is as long as his product is doing what he promises. I joined MeWe in 2019 because I was completely disillusioned with Facebook’s lack of privacy.
Very interesting article! But honestly, I intend to continue to support the platform that treats us better. Maybe another one will come along. I lost (touch with) a lot of friends moving to MeWe, but I want it to succeed because f*ck Facebook. Nothing political here; just a product I approve of.
Hi Lauren, thanks for your feedback. As I mentioned in the article, as critical and cautious as I am of Mark Weinstein, I respect his stance on privacy. Does it make me feel uneasy that he donates to democrats that are approving of social media censorship? Yes! Does he provide a platform that so far resects privacy of the users? Yes! So, I’ll use MeWe over Facebook anyday of the week. But I’ll also be careful to fully invest too much time into the platform until I can be certain he isn’t going to become the next Mark Zuckerberg.
Thanks you, I am planning on moving two of my Facebook communities over to MeWe or VK but have not decided. This will help since I do not want to support any site that makes money for leftists.
It’s a tough call. Weinstein does have a strong history of supporting privacy. He calls MeWe the Anti-Facebook. However, his donations are troubling. I like MeWe as a platform. But I’m leaving my options open.
As a suggestion it would be nice if you can do this about more platforms, like Telegram, VK and others. I think what I lot of right leaning people do not realize is that security of our info or freedom of speech on platforms are only half of the story. The other half, that is just as important is that we vote with our money and attention. For example, even if Facebook did not ban right leaning people and allowed us to say what we wanted to, by using their platform we are growing their platform even bigger and as result leftists are making more money and have more influence that they can use against us. Thus, we should try to grow right leaning platform more and leftist platform less. But yes, I do understand that at this moment to reach a lot of people we have to use their platforms, for now. Thus, why we have to promote right leaning alternatives where we can.
Agreed. And great suggestion. I’ve had others ask me to check into some of these other platforms as well. Sometimes it can be hard to separate the facts from the slander.
I keep hearing how Telegram is not secure and they cache metadata and whatnot. I went to Wickr. You should review those.
Thanks for the info and suggestion. I got spam bombed on Telegram and it got to the point I couldn’t use my account.
maybe your settings were open. I had same experience on FB and Parler. I just deleted my APK loader. Done with Parler, their security was poor.
Yeah, I think it could have been that and that I joined a group and had my username showing. They got hold of that and the rest is history. Heard recent reports that Telegram is now banning certain words.
Words? WTF! Unless it’s terrorism or violence, just leave it alone. AH snowflakes. I have dealt with the violent types for myself and a friend of mine. She had 2 stalkers. I gave her the relevant criminal charges in both cases. I told her that police case #s settle those. She’s good at documentation.
Right Telegram is not very secured either. Try Signal, it is great and does not link what you do or what you say to your name and info.
Telegram is not as secure. The most secure is Signal. Nothing links to your name and information. That’s what I want.
Signal caches metadata. Wickr does not. That’s why I went with Wickr.
ty. on Messenger I used disappearing msgs and gave them 24 or 36 hrs. they were encrypted both ways.
This is a good thing unless you want to be sucked into a echo chamber. I want to reach everyone with whatever I post or share not just people who agree with me and as long as MeWe sticks to its own guidelines of not censoring or selling my data I see it as a plus.
I think MeWe will stick to privacy terms. However, recent events show it has started to censor groups that are questionable as to whether they violate the TOS. They also got rid of the gun emoji recently, which is weird. And they have been on record saying they will ban any stop the steal groups or posts.
I have exactly the same concerns. A BFF of mine mocked me when I told her that I opened Telegram and WhatsApp accts for privacy.
“Really? You downloaded a virtual keyboard…you think that’s private?” Wow, she had Intel experience- I still miss the fine details, lol. Remember…the internet is forever!
Whatsapp and messenger are the worst as far as privacy. I closed my accounts. signal is much more private.
Move them to Gab.com because MeWe is not safe. I know, I’ve seen people and whole groups simply deleted – CANCELLED – from MeWe!
I would have liked to but Gab functions like Twitter and that would not really work for the groups I have.
And? So bloody WHAT? He is perfectly within his rights and good on him! At least he does not fund an incestuous paedofile rapist, intent on subverting the rule of law, democracy and justice, destroying the American wilderness and the earth’s climate!
As far as many of us are concerned, Trump should be in JAIL!
So: GOOD ON MARK WEINSTEIN!
Sounds like you didn’t read past the headline. I actually like MeWe and have already deleted my Facebook account. In the article, I point out the hypocrisy of calling oneself a Libertarian, yet donating to far-left Democrats. All of these platforms that Weinstein calls out for violating privacy, are donating millions to the Democratic party. And the Democratic party in turn enables these platforms to continue the censorship and privacy violations. In regards to Weinstein being the CEO of MeWe, my main concern is that he stays true to his stance on strong privacy and free speech. History has shown us that other Democrat supporters, like Zuckerberg, changed policy for the worse as the platform grew.
This is the first time I am on writeoftech. Can you tell me more about the site? I have been looking for some more tech sites that are not run by leftists.
Thanks! How did you find the site? I’ve been blogging about tech since 2009 when I started the BlackBerry fansite, BlackBerryOS.com. I sold the site after BB crashed, and than started a general tech site called, Gadgism. Last year I rebranded Gadgism to WriteofTech.com. As in, to the right of tech (a play on words). That is where things are at now. I’ve always known about the imbalance of politics in the tech industry. It can be tough to be a conservative and blog about tech. But I’ve done this long enough to know the ins and outs. This site is currently just a hobby of mine but I hope to add more content as time goes on. I really started it because, like you, I got tired of reading tech news on sites like Tech Crunch, Engadget, and basically all of the others, and have to ingest their left-wing virtue signaling in every tech article.
“As in, to the right of tech (a play on words).”
– I picket up on that, it’s a good name.
Tech is in a sad state at the moment considering how it is invested with left-wing cancer. Today I also started unfollowing PCMag since they keep on posting political posts that are left leaning. It is getting harder to find sites that do not misuse their platform to promote left-wing politics, with BLM being a good recent example of how many tech and gaming company’s virtue signaled with it. Sadly even the Linux Foundation has been taken over by these lunatics.
I do have a Gaming group of about 7K people on FB, I’I try to share some of you stuff there when it is gaming related to try and give you more likes.
I know all about the bias. Most of these large tech sites are bought and ran under big tech companies. Tech Crunch and Engadget owned by Verizon. The Verge is owned by Vox Media.
Appreciate the compliment on the site name, and for sharing the articles to your group! Have you ever written posts about gaming? Looking for contributors if you are interested. Send me (Joe) an email at [email protected].
No one cares for your far-left pedophile terrorist bigot leftist opinions.
that’s bc you’re brainwashed.
Psst… you have Stage 4 TDS, and it shows.
Pedophile rapists? Jeff Epstein? Who are you talking about?
Clinton appears to have been a serial rapist, same with Harvey Weinstein and the rest of the kosher men on the #metoo list. The Dems didn’t seem to have a problem with it.
I’m no Trump fan. If he is guilty of something, nail him.
You smell like a limey ! Get bent, loser !