MyPillow CEO and Donald Trump supporter Mike Lindell has spent about $1 million to launch his "Frank" social media platform, which has been mired in numerous technical glitches and website errors.
Lindell announced last week that his social media website, frankspeech, was set to have the second phase of its launch Monday morning. But the relaunch has been plagued by registration problems, loading errors and now leaked screenshots from a weekend Zoom call that show he spent about $1 million just in building the glitch-prone platform. Documentation was reportedly leaked from Lindell's video conference alongside the so-called "free speech" platform's IT team members. The equipment charges, hourly fees and other costs tied to the development of the website have racked up about $936,000, according to documents first shared by Salon staff writer Zachary Petrizzo on Monday.
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell spent nearly a million bucks on his failed "Frank" speech platform, according to a leaked Zoom call with his IT team. pic.twitter.com/ebLM1Z9ej0
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) May 3, 2021
Nonrecurring equipment charges and cloud technology software alone cost about $875,000, the leaked IT Zoom call screenshots show.
Software costs, hardware purchases and hired professional services from technical developers have racked up the nearly $1 million just to get the website off the ground. The website combines the video streaming qualities of YouTube along with posts similar in content to Fox News, Breitbart or Newsmax.
Monday's glitchy relaunch is not the first time that Lindell's platform has faltered in the weeks since he announced its creation. Last Thursday, the streaming and posting service went offline entirely just days after a messy initial launch on April 19. Lindell and the Tennessee-based promotion company World View Weekend have touted "Frank" as a conservative-leaning alternative to such platforms as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Lindell has been joined by numerous conservative figures and business partners in hosting live, 24/7 TV promotions on the frankspeech website. Lindell blamed a "massive attack" for complicating the launch effort during one of his most recent live stream appearances, but he did not specify any more details.
Users have posted screenshots across Twitter that appear to show account sign-up issues. Petrizzo noted last week that the HTML coding for the website shows Amazon is involved in running the website, even despite Lindell's insistent railing against Big Tech and Silicon Valley companies.
The Minnesota businessman has characterized the platform as being opposed to all forms of content "censorship," and he reportedly chose South Dakota as its base because the state did not close up during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Argus Leader newspaper reported Friday that the "censorship-free" platform is has South Dakota as its home base because "the governor has done a great job of keeping the state open, defending the Constitution and the free market system," said Melissa Howser, co-owner of World View Weekend, Tennessee-based promotion company
Critics, particularly left-leaning users of Twitter, have piled on their complaints about the Frank platform launch, reveling in the apparent technical issues.
"MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's social-media site, 'Frank', was supposed to launch at Monday am. Instead, the site showed errors, similar to its planned launch last week. Lindell claims the website was facing 'a massive attack against it' but didn't explain further. Sounds like Trump," one critic tweeted Monday in response to the IT issues.
Newsweek reached out to representatives for Lindell and the Frank platform Monday afternoon for additional remarks.
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Benjamin Fearnow is a reporter based out of Newsweek's New York City offices. He was previously at CBS and Mediaite ... Read more
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