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

November 16, 2020 News 17 Views

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

“John and I began Parler to offer a impartial platform at no cost speech, as our founders supposed, and likewise to create a social media atmosphere that might shield information privateness,” Mercer said in a statement on the platform. “The ever rising tyranny and hubris of our tech overlords calls for that somebody lead the struggle in opposition to information mining, and for the safety of free speech on-line. That somebody is Parler, a beacon to all who worth their liberty, free speech, and private privateness.”

Parler, based in 2018 by Mercer, John Matze and Jared Thomson, payments itself as “unbiased social media” and a spot the place folks can “communicate freely and specific your self brazenly with out worry of being ‘deplatformed’ on your views,” in accordance with its web site and App Retailer description. It seems to be like a mashup of Twitter and Instagram, with its essential feed, follower counts and methods to share posts and hyperlinks.

The platform turned the most-downloaded free app within the Apple App Retailer on the weekend of November eight — the day main media shops known as the election for Joe Biden.

Parler largely attracts conservative customers. A few of Parler’s most-active customers embrace Fox Information host Sean Hannity, radio character Mark Levin, far-right activist Laura Loomer, Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Devin Nunes. Eric Trump and Donald Trump’s presidential marketing campaign even have accounts on the platform.

A considerable variety of customers have adopted these voices onto the platform, fueled by complaints over actions main social media platforms have taken in opposition to election misinformation and false allegations of voter fraud, reminiscent of disputing claims with fact-check labels.

Twitter (TWTR), greater than Fb (FB), took aggressive motion on a lot of President Trump’s tweets during the election. At one level, the social community utilized warning labels to greater than a 3rd of Trump’s tweets after polls closed. A few of Trump’s tweets have been hidden behind a warning label which customers needed to click on via earlier than having the ability to learn what they stated.

With massive tech firms flagging false data, Parler has develop into a free-for-all for conservative voices. In response to an ADL report launched on Thursday, members of the Proud Boys, adherents of conspiracy theory QAnon, anti-government extremists and white supremacists all brazenly promote their views on Parler. “Holocaust denial, antisemitism, racism and different types of bigotry are additionally straightforward to search out,” the ADL stated.

Who’s Rebekah Mercer?

For years, the Mercers have been key benefactors of conservative teams, starting from the Heritage Basis assume tank, the place Rebekah Mercer serves on the board of trustees, to organizations which have produced anti-Hillary-Clinton books and flicks.

However the household emerged in nationwide politics within the 2016 election cycle when Robert Mercer, who helped oversee Renaissance Applied sciences hedge fund, and his spouse Diane, donated greater than $23 million to teams that backed conservative candidates, in accordance with a tally by the non-partisan Middle for Responsive Politics.

In that election, the Mercers financed a brilliant PAC that originally backed Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination earlier than throwing its help behind Trump.

The media-shy Rebekah Mercer is extensively reported to have persuaded then-candidate Trump to reshuffle his marketing campaign group and rent Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway to assist run his presidential bid within the closing stretch of the 2016 election. Rebekah Mercer went on to serve on the chief committee of Trump’s transition staff,

Rebekah Mercer didn’t reply to a request for remark. Robert Mercer stepped other than Renaissance in 2017.

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