Photo via Mike Lindell/Frank
April 13, 2021, 10:24 am
Hardcore freedom of speech fans might be real disappointed to hear that Mike Lindell’s upcoming social media platform, which he has promised to be a combination of YouTube and Twitter, won’t be the First Amendment bastion he made it out to be.
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It turns out that Lindell does believe that there are some limits to the idea of free speech, including whatever the pillow magnate says they are.
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Firstly, according to Mike Lindell, there are four swear words and they’re all banned from his site.
“You don’t get to use the four swear words,” he said. “The C-word, the N-word, the F-word or God’s name in vain. Free speech is not pornography, free speech isn’t ‘I am going to kill you,’ it is very well defined in our mission statement.”
Apparently, porn and death threats will also be banned from the platform, called “Frank,” as will whatever Lindell decides is defamation. He explained this on some radio show while he struggled to remember the content of the Biblical commandment he was citing
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“Another thing you can’t do [is] what we define in there is totally defame someone. What’s the Ninth Commandment? I can’t even think now, but in the Ninth Commandment, you’re bearing false witness, I believe it is. So, if you’re putting a complete lie against Eric; if I say, ‘Eric Metaxas did something terrible’ and it’s an out and out lie, that’s not free speech.”
We’re going to go ahead and assume that if someone posts that Joe Biden rigged the 2020 election on Lindell’s platform, that won’t be considered “bearing false witness.” Eric Metaxas described all these rules as “really puritanical” and then said “I like it.”
Frank is currently scheduled to open to the public on April 19. Currently, the site consists of a placeholder page with Lindell’s over-excited introduction video and an offer for early access if you give him your phone number. He also claimed that he’s going to celebrate Frank’s launch by being online for two days straight.
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“It’s going to be a two-day, I call it a ‘Frankathon,’ I am going to be on there live, all day long,” he said.
Lindell did not mention whether or not he would be getting any sleep during that time. But he has promised that Frank will be able to support up to one billion users, that he has his own servers for it so he doesn’t have to worry about “Amazon taking it down,” and that it will have a “good reporting system” for people to flag violations of the rules, which are based on the “Founding Fathers and the Supreme Court and stuff.”
How Lindell can afford all this while facing down a $1.3 billion lawsuit from Dominion is a mystery.
*First Published: April 13, 2021, 10:24 am
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