MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell says a social media platform he will launch in coming weeks will be a “safe place” for those who have been “canceled” by big tech platforms such as YouTube and Twitter.
“You won’t have to walk on eggshells anymore,” said Lindell, whose personal and MyPillow accounts were suspended by Twitter last month, noting that the release of his platform, Vocal, is scheduled within the next fortnight.
“It’s YouTube and Twitter kind of combined. There’s nothing like it out there. Journalists can actually go out and invite guests on and speak the truth,” Lindell told NTD’s “Focus Talk” host Jenny Chang. “I’m really looking forward to it. It’s been four years in the making, and it is absolutely amazing. There’s technology out there that nobody else has.”
Lindell’s site would compete with the likes of Parler and Gab, which have attracted conservatives and supporters of former President Donald Trump.
Twitter suspended Lindell’s accounts over his claims about the 2020 presidential election. When Lindell released his video on YouTube, the Google-owned platform deleted it, citing its “presidential election integrity policy.” The video was also taken down by Vimeo.
He has been sued by Dominion Voting Systems over his statements about the election technology vendor after the election. The company filed a lawsuit against Lindell on Feb. 22 in the District of Columbia.
The suit alleges that Lindell, a staunch supporter of Trump, harmed Dominion’s brand by raising questions about the company’s vote-counting equipment. The company is seeking damages in excess of $1.3 billion.
Trump and his advisers have said the former president is considering starting his own social media company. Lindell, when asked about the possibility of a platform launched by Trump, said, “I think it’s great to have more than one place to speak out the truth.”
“For me, my platform is made for more for the influencers out there—people that have podcasts, people that have radio, and TV stations that they can’t speak the truth or they lose their YouTube or they get threatened to being sued by Dominion or whatever it is,” Lindell said.
“I have so many friends of mine that lost their followers on Facebook, they lost their Twitter, they lost their YouTube channels, they maybe lost Vimeo. … That’s their livelihood. I know a friend of mine had 12 employees. They’re all laid off right now because they took away his whole platform, and just for speaking out his opinions.
“I want to be able to talk about election fraud with the machines, and I want to talk about the vaccine, which I don’t believe in. I want the word to get out.”
Lindell told NTD that his company has so far lost 22 retailers. In a recent interview with Business Insider, he said that he lost about $65 million in revenue this year due to mass boycotts from various firms such as Kohl’s and Bed Bath & Beyond.
“Right now, my company has been attacked,” he said. “Google has attacked me; they won’t let me buy my own name. My Twitter is taken down; my company Twitter is taken down; my YouTube is down; Vimeo’s down; Facebook won’t let me live stream—all these attacks.”
The MyPillow CEO said he intends to countersue Dominion because “this is about our First Amendment right of free speech.”
“What’s coming is communism and socialism. It came into our country, they’re suppressing free speech, and right now, it’s terrible,” Lindell said. “Even Democrats see that’s not who they voted for. This is terrible, what is happening. It’s happening to everybody.”