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).
