Judge Sanctions MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell For Wasting The Court’s Time

Legal Issues

from the being-stupid-in-public-can-be-costly dept

Mike Lindell just used to be a guy selling overpriced pillows to people who liked to buy overpriced pillows. But when Donald Trump was elected, he threw his entire company under the Trump campaign bus, making it clear Lindell was willing to ride The Donald’s coat tails into relevance. What used to be just a pillow manufacturer was now The Preferred Pillow of the Far Right^TM, a social cause tied to sleep — the ultimate form of slacktivism.

When Americans unsurprisingly decided to dump an inveterate liar who proved incapable of handling a pandemic, Lindell sprung into action. As persona grata of the Trump campaign, Lindell was asked to provide his nonexistent legal expertise about the 2020 election. He agreed with Trump — another person who had no evidence of election fraud — that the election was fraudulent.

Thanks to his online and TV appearance agitation, Lindell was sued by a frequent target of his election-related bullshit, Smartmatic, a manufacturer of voting machines/software. In response, Lindell filed his own lawsuit, ridiculously claiming that voting machine manufacturers’ lawsuits unfairly targeted his company (which had allegedly not issued any formal statements about the election results), resulting in the violation of his company’s free speech rights to say what it wanted to about the election, even if (as Lindell swore on the record) MyPillow had not actually expressed any opinion about the 2020 election.

Moving on from there, Lindell continued to assert his obliviousness when being sued by other voting machine companies that found themselves besmirched on the regular by Lindell and others who swore (literally in court filings) that Joe Biden’s win was fraudulent.

Live in fiction if you must, says a federal court. But don’t expect us to foot the bill for your bullshit lawsuits. Lindell is now being hit with sanction orders for allowing his masturbatory election fantasies to become half-assed realities by filing a federal lawsuit.

Here’s Caroline Vakil of The Hill reporting on the latest in one of Mike Lindell’s many litigious flights of folly.

A U.S. district judge ordered MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to pay some of voting machine company Smartmatic’s court costs and fees, saying in a ruling on Thursday that some of Lindell’s claims against Smartmatic fall “on the frivolous side of the line.”

“The Court agrees with Smartmatic that Lindell has asserted at least some groundless claims,” U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols wrote in his ruling. 

“In particular, the Court concludes that at the very least Lindell’s claim against Smartmatic under the Support or Advocacy Clause falls on the frivolous side of the line (other claims do too). As a result, the Court orders Lindell and his previous counsel to pay some of the fees and costs Smartmatic has incurred defending itself and moving for sanctions,” he added.

That’s how it’s going to go for Lindell. The best option he has right now is to abandon any open litigation against voting machine manufacturers. His pride and his conspiracy buy-in likely won’t allow him to ditch these lawsuits. So, it’s going to cost him plenty of real money, something that’s going to harm his business (which appears now to be solely reliant on right-wing purchasers of pillows) in the long run.

The opinion [PDF] makes it clear Lindell is wasting public resources, something the court is unwilling to allow.

There is no abuse of process, says the court, noting that litigants filing lawsuits are obligated to serve defendants, even if the end result is a loss in court for those instigating the litigation.

As for Lindell’s post-facto RICO claims, the court says nothing here is the RICO:

Lindell’s RICO claim against Smartmatic fails because he fails to allege that Smartmatic shared the requisite common purpose with Dominion or other members of the alleged RICO enterprise. Lindell claims that Smartmatic and Dominion acted in furtherance of the purpose of “suppressing speech and dissent” and “suppressing demands for investigations” about electronic voting machines and their use in the 2020 election. Lindell’s Counterclaims ¶ 156. He also claims that Smartmatic and Dominion shared “a common purpose of suppressing dissent to protect their commercial and financial interests shown by their coordinated attack on dissenting speech, which is akin to a price fixing scheme.” Id. But Lindell alleges no fact raising an inference that Smartmatic worked with Dominion (or anyone else for that matter) “to pursue by common, coordinated efforts what they could not do on their own.” Browning v. Flexsteel Indus., Inc., 955 F. Supp. 2d 900, 913 (N.D. Ind. 2013). He also does not allege that Smartmatic communicated, met, or otherwise coordinated with Dominion or Hamilton Place in furtherance of their supposed “suppressive” aims. In short, Lindell offers no allegations from which to infer a “continuing unit that functions with a common purpose.” Boyle, 556 U.S. at 948; Cisneros v. Petland, Inc., 972 F.3d 1204, 1213 (11th Cir. 2020) (“[Lindell has] failed to allege concrete facts from which the inference may plausibly be drawn that [Smartmatic] shared a common purpose to [engage in suppressive and otherwise illegal conduct] with the other participants of the purported associationin-fact enterprise.”).

Litigants — especially those who proceed without legal representation — may legitimately misunderstand the law and proceed into areas unsupported by precedent. Lindell, however, does not have that excuse. He’s not filing pro se lawsuits. He’s being represented by the best lawyers money can buy and yet he still insists on pursuing baseless legal claims. That’s going to hurt him, hopefully personally.

All of Lindell’s claims (which range from the aforementioned RICO to the First Amendment to the Fourteenth Amendment) have failed. And Lindell was on notice these would fail, considering the absolute absence of precedent backing his views. Given these facts, the court says Lindell should be sanctioned for engaging in bad faith, politically motivated litigation.

Lindell now owes Smartmatic money for dragging the company into his baseless “the election was stolen” lawsuit.

The Court agrees with Smartmatic that Lindell has asserted at least some groundless claims. See Sanction’s Mot. at 18 (contending that Lindell has asserted groundless “factual allegations, accusations of criminality, theories of liability within his existing claims, and causes of action . . . against Smartmatic”). In particular, the Court concludes that at the very least Lindell’s claim against Smartmatic under the Support or Advocacy Clause falls on the frivolous side of the line (other claims do too). As a result, the Court orders Lindell and his previous counsel to pay some of the fees and costs Smartmatic has incurred defending itself and moving for sanctions under Rule 11.

It’s unclear at this point how much this will cost Lindell and his pillow company. But there was a way to sell pillows and a way to steer clear of sanctions but Lindell has managed to screw up both efforts. There may be a small subset of Americans willing to buy pillows for political reasons, but Lindell’s decision to attach himself to the Trump Train is likely going to cost him far more in real dollars than can be made up by selling bedroom accessories to a small minority of US residents who think buying pillows is a political statement.

Filed Under: frivolous lawsuits, mike lindell, rico, rule 11, sanctions
Companies: mypillow, smartmatic

Smartmatic Sues MyPillow CEO For Defamation Over His Months Of Nonstop Election Conspiracy Theories

Defamation

from the making-himself-poorer-and-other-people-dumber dept

Hope Mike Lindell has socked away some of his MyPillow millions. Trump toadying is proving to be an expensive hobby, and it’s not as though the former president is doing anything to repay those whose support has been absurdly unwavering with anything like, you know, legal assistance. Or actual money.

Trump cohorts and legal reps are being sued by Dominion Voting Systems for the weeks of (alleged) defamation they engaged in following Trump’s loss at the polls. The MyPillow CEO is being sued by Dominion for the same thing, thanks to his sudden ascendance into the public sphere — a position he used to spread plenty of false (and easily disproved) “stolen election” theories.

Lindell responded to being sued by Dominion with a lawsuit of his own — one that claimed Dominion’s lawsuit was unconstitutionally silencing his company by naming it as a defendant. His lawsuit pointed out (correctly) that Lindell made all of the allegedly defamatory assertions before going on to claim his company was being censored by Dominion, preventing it from saying all the things Lindell just finished claiming it had never said, nor would ever say.

Another voting tech company is now suing Lindell for defamation, raising a lot of the same allegations Dominion’s lawsuit did. Smartmatic — which was dragged into the post-election shitstorm by Trump acolytes pushing conspiracy theories — says Lindell made tons of false claims about the company being involved in the “theft” of votes, as well as being compromised by Chinese hackers during the 2020 election. (h/t Mike Dunford)

The lawsuit [PDF] doesn’t waste any time letting the judge (and Lindell) know exactly what Smartmatic thinks of him and his assertions.

Crazy like a fox. Mike Lindell knows exactly what he is doing, and it is dangerous.

Mr. Lindell knows Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election for President and Vice President of the United States. He knows the election was not rigged, fixed, or stolen. He knows voting machines did not switch votes from former President Trump to now President Biden.

These facts do not matter to Mr. Lindell because he knows he can sell. Mr. Lindell knows he can sell xenophobia. He knows he can sell conspiracy theory. He knows he can sell a preconceived story about voting machines stealing democracy by stealing votes from a president who is incredibly popular with millions of Americans. And, of course, Mr. Lindell—“the MyPillow Guy”—knows he needs to sell pillows to keep and increase his fortune.

That last point is repeated throughout the lawsuit: Lindell leveraged his position as the CEO of MyPillow to make public appearances. And he leveraged these public appearances to advertise for his company. The two are intertwined, even if, as Lindell claims, the company itself has never issued a public statement purporting to be the business’s official take on election fraud theories.

Here’s what’s bothering Smartmatic:

Mr. Lindell’s message was as dangerous as it was factually inaccurate. Mr. Lindell told people that Smartmatic stole the 2020 U.S. election. He told people that Smartmatic’s election technology, hardware, and software were hacked by China and other foreign countries. He told people that Smartmatic election technology, hardware, and software were developed for the sole purpose of stealing foreign elections by switching votes. And he told people that Smartmatic deployed its election technology, hardware, and software to do just that in the 2020 U.S. election. All lies.

Unlike Dominion’s multiple, multi-billion dollar lawsuits, Smartmatic’s lawsuit does not seek a set amount in damages. This suggests it has more than enough evidence on hand to show how Lindell’s false statements harmed it. And the narrative that the 136-page lawsuit details is one in which Lindell — despite being aware other entities like Fox News had retracted false claims about Smartmatic — continued to make the same, disproven assertions over and over again.

The lawsuit lays out — in great detail — the false claims made by Lindell on Fox News, as well as on other networks seeking to “outFox” the former leader in conspiratorial conservatives, like OAN and Newsmax. This went on for weeks, long after other conspiracy theorists had decided to abandon the “stolen” election narrative. The longer Lindell continued, the more evidence contradicting his claims he willingly ignored, as Smartmatic points out:

Mr. Lindell had obvious reasons to doubt what he was saying about Smartmatic outside of the 2020 U.S. election because it had been publicly debunked for months prior to his statements.

[…]

Mr. Lindell possessed and had access to a significant volume of information that contradicted the story he told about Smartmatic. Mr. Lindell reviewed this information (and therefore knew his statements and implications were false) and/or purposefully avoided reviewing this information because he did not want to know the truth.

A minimal amount of investigation would easily establish the falsity of Mr. Lindell’s statements about Smartmatic’s role in the U.S. election. Mr. Lindell has stated that he spent millions of dollars investigating Smartmatic. He would have needed to spend only a fraction of that amount to learn of Smartmatic’s limited, secure role as a voting technology and services provider in Los Angeles County.

Lindell’s persistence in the face of actual facts is likely to cost him more than just the legal fees he’ll spend defending himself against this lawsuit. Smartmatic’s lawsuit points out dozens of false statements made by Lindell that had already been disproven by the time he started making these assertions. That’s actual malice and it’s going to be very hard for Lindell to argue he was just engaging in heated political rhetoric that got a little out of hand. He has attached his personal brand — along with MyPillow’s — to bizarre conspiracy theories that originated from a small but vocal minority that simply cannot bring themselves to believe their president got voted out of office.

Filed Under: defamation, mike lindell, voting
Companies: smartmatic

Court Tells MyPillow CEO That Allegedly Dating An Actress And Buying Her Alcohol Isn't Defamatory

Defamation

from the insulted-by-being-linked-to-attractive-people dept

MyPillow CEO/election fraud conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell apparently understands defamation law about as well as he understands cybersecurity, social media, and election machine operation. Lindell will be learning more about defamation law as he defends himself against voting machine manufacturer Dominion which has sued him (and a bunch of other Trumpists) over his alleged defamation.

But we’ll see if he learns anything from this other lawsuit — one he filed after the Daily Mail published an article claiming he pursued a relationship with 30 Rock actress Jane Krakowski. Now, most people would not feel insulted after being romantically linked to an actress, but this apparently bothered Lindell so much he decided to sue over it.

There’s no defamation there says the New York federal court handling Lindell’s complaint. The ruling is short, punchy, and instructive, although the court is dealing with a student especially resistant to learning lessons from stupid mistakes. (via Courthouse News Service).

The decision [PDF] says nothing in the Daily Mail’s article, which alleged Lindell and Krakowski had a nine-month relationship during which Lindell sent her gifts like bottles of champagne, even approaches defamation, no matter how much Lindell would like to construe it otherwise.

Lindell immediately informed the Daily Mail the romance never happened. So did Krakowski. Both denials were included in the article. Even if the article was false, it wasn’t defamatory and it contained denials that would allow readers to draw their own conclusions about the Mail’s claims, which were allegedly supplied by friends of the actress.

But Lindell’s main problem isn’t his alleged relationship with the sitcom star. No, he’s far more bothered by the implication that he — a clean and sober recovering drug user and alcoholic — would deign to buy alcohol for other people, even as a gift.

On a more abstract level, Lindell claims the Article disparaged his moral character. He maintains he is a recovering alcoholic who would never buy alcohol or “foist” it on other people, including Krakowski. To the contrary, Lindell is a Christian who “is piously devoted to his religious faith, his family, civic involvement and charity.” Thus, he would never “engage in any sort of scandalous” or secret romantic relationship.

As a result of the Article, Lindell asserts his reputation “in the field of addiction recovery as well as in religious communities” has been damaged. He also claims the Lindell Recovery Network “has only been able to associate with a handful of churches,” and that an unnamed “Christian broadcaster” told the Recovery Network that “churches may be pulling out” because of the Article.

While there are many reasons entities might want to distance themselves from Lindell, given his complete abandonment of rationality, it seems unlikely this article would have that effect. It never suggested Lindell was consuming alcohol. And Lindell was divorced at the time, so he was free to pursue companionship without running afoul of God’s laws or whatever.

The court says this is ridiculous. It also notes there are far more serious allegations in the Daily Mail article but none of those appeared to have bothered Lindell.

Lindell does not challenge several provocative assertions in the Article. The Article describes Lindell as a “beleaguered ‘Stop the Steal’ Trump champion” who faces dozens of legal actions for his claims about election fraud and a fake COVID-19 cure, and for false advertising related to his pillow company. It goes on to state Lindell’s “apparent enthusiasm for martial law” has caused retailers to drop his pillow products.

Nope, Lindell wanted to argue about actresses and alcohol. None of this rises to the level of defamation, says the court.

Even assuming the romance never happened, the above description would not defame Lindell. Dating an actress-secret or not-would not cause “public hatred,” “shame,” “ridicule,” or any similar feeling towards Lindell. Both Lindell and Krakowski are unmarried adults, and Lindell’s alleged actions typify those of a person in a consenting relationship. […] New York courts require a publication to “impute[] serious sexual misconduct” to be defamatory per se. The Article does not mention sexual conduct at all, let alone serious sexual misconduct.

[…]

Lindell has provided no support for the proposition that gossip about a typical monogamous relationship could be “reasonably susceptible” to defamatory meaning.

The alcohol angle isn’t any better, even given Lindell’s background as a recovering alcoholic.

Inferring a step further, Lindell claims the Article still defamed him because he would never buy alcohol or “foist” it on other people after recovering from his own addiction. But whatever Lindell’s personal history with addiction, buying alcohol for a dating partner would not reasonably expose him to “public hatred,” “shame,” or “ridicule.” The purchase of alcohol is a legal and ordinary act. If even more problematic depictions of alcohol consumption, such as underage drinking or alcoholism, routinely fail to qualify as defamatory in New York courts, surely no reasonable reader could find it offensive to exchange champagne or other bottles of liquor as gifts between romantic partners.

That ends Lindell’s attempt to wring money out of the Daily Mail for suggesting he dates women and buys them gifts. Lindell may still be on the hook for the Mail’s legal fees as well. New York’s anti-SLAPP law is operative here, even though the Daily Mail, for whatever reason, never bothered to file a counterclaim. The suit has been dismissed (without prejudice, meaning Lindell can waste more of his money trying this again), but the court points out fee-shifting isn’t automatic. So Lindell’s legal reps have at least one more visit to court ahead of them to respond to the Mail’s demand for fees, which will, presumably, be arriving shortly.

Being personally offended isn’t the same thing as being libeled. This is a distinction far too many plaintiffs fail to grasp. Unfortunately, their misunderstanding of the law (deliberate or mistaken) can still be expensive for those they sue. And, as the court points out in a footnote, fee-shifting isn’t guaranteed. Federal courts can (and often do) decide state law doesn’t apply at the federal level. And that makes this case yet another data point in favor of a federal anti-SLAPP law — one that will deter bogus lawsuits all over the nation, rather than just in certain states.

Filed Under: defamation, free speech, jane krakowski, mike lindell
Companies: mypillow, the daily mail

MyPillow CEO Sues Dominion For Violating His Company's Right To Say The Things About Election Fraud It Definitely Isn't Saying

Too Much Free Time

from the [rereads-headline]-...-look,-I-just-work-here... dept

Trump supporter and pillow manufacturer Mike Lindell was among those sued for defamation by Dominion Voting Systems over weeks of wild allegations about voter fraud that followed Donald Trump’s loss at the polls in the 2020 election. Mike Lindell and his company, MyPillow, joined such luminaries as Rudy Giuliani and former Trump legal team member Sidney Powell as a recipient of a billion-dollar libel lawsuit.

Now, Mike Lindell is fighting back. He’s attempting to dismiss Dominion’s lawsuit, claiming his alleged libel was nothing more than heated commentary touching on important political issues. More credibly, he’s asking his company to be dismissed from the lawsuit because his company did not make any of the statements Dominion is suing over.

Less credibly, he’s filed a lawsuit [PDF] of his own against Dominion, claiming that naming his company as a defendant in a lawsuit somehow violates his company’s rights. Considering this suit is only supposed to be about Dominion’s “silencing” of MyPillow, the complaint spends a lot of its run time trotting out supporting evidence for the claims about Dominion Lindell says his company never made.

That leads to some really weird assertions by Lindell, like the claim that naming a company in a lawsuit is an attempt to silence anyone associated with MyPillow and/or allegations of election fraud.

Dominion’s true purpose is not simply to silence Mike Lindell, but to silence anyone else who might speak out on election fraud. Thus, Dominion also sued the company Mike Lindell founded, MyPillow, and hence its hundreds of employees, some of whom are co-owners. Dominion did not sue MyPillow because MyPillow made statements about Dominion. MyPillow made no such statements. Instead, by suing MyPillow, Dominion seeks to punish MyPillow’s CEO, Mike Lindell, for his statements. Dominion also seeks to send a message to others: “Shut up or else.”

But who is Dominion shutting up? Lindell claims it’s trying to silence MyPillow, even though he also claims there’s nothing to be silenced.

Having never commented on the election or Dominion, MyPillow has nonetheless borne the full wrath of Dominion’s illegal campaign of intimidation.

So, the speech MyPillow isn’t engaging in needs to be protected… otherwise it won’t feel comfortable continuing to not offer its opinion on topics of public debate.

Dominion is using the legal process as a weapon to suppress free speech. In contrast, MyPillow brings this action to open debate and expand free speech. Indeed, MyPillow would move this entire debate to the public square for a full airing of all facts and opinions on the subject. This lawsuit is brought in support of the marketplace of ideas and to remedy the grave harm that has been suffered by MyPillow as a result of Dominion’s suppression of speech and attacks on the Company.

Now, there may be some “grave harm” to be examined, but probably not under these claims. MyPillow has lost customers due to Mike Lindell’s actions (and reactions to those actions, like Dominion’s libel lawsuit). But none of that can plausibly be traced to Dominion adding MyPillow as a defendant in a civil lawsuit, especially since it’s likely to be dropped as a defendant once the court handles Lindell’s motion to dismiss.

Then there’s the question of how one private company (Dominion Voting Systems) can violate the rights of another private company (MyPillow), especially when the only thing involved at this point is a single libel lawsuit. Lindell theorizes Dominion is actually a government actor and that’s how rights can be violated. But even if Dominion is considered a government actor, its government work is limited to production and support of voting software and hardware. The lawsuit brought against Lindell for defamation is not part of its government role.

What follows these accusations is a bunch of narrative that supposedly supports the claims about Dominion Lindell says MyPillow never made. Then it’s back to the action, where Dominion suing a handful of people for libel is every censorial cliche all at once.

Dominion’s campaign descends from a long and sad history in this country, the McCarthy era in which lives and organizations were destroyed, and families torn apart, for being labeled a Communist. Just as during that era being associated with a suspected Communist could end a professional career, so too today, those who, like MyPillow are merely associated with a critic of Dominion and the integrity of the 2020 election, face expulsion from public life in large parts of America. Dominion is using today’s cancel culture to eliminate dissent and to cover up the election issues that compromised the 2020 result.

Oh, McCarthyism? As in Sentor Joseph McCarthy, an actual government actor? Or is this some off-brand McCarthyism that can only be waged by private contractors supplying tech to government agencies? Cancel culture should help fill out your batshit lawsuit bingo cards, although it is disappointing Lindell never chooses to refer to Dominion as “woke.”

And then there’s more about how much MyPillow has been harmed:

Even giant, publicly traded retailers are not immune from public opinion and political pressures. Fearing retribution in the marketplace, many of MyPillow’s commercial suppliers and buyers have as a direct result of Dominion’s crusade terminated longstanding relationships with MyPillow which were projected to grow.

If Lindell was being honest, he would understand it was his public statements that caused this to happen, not Dominion’s lawsuit. The list of things that have happened to MyPillow — including the loss of social media accounts and employees being harassed — can be directly tied to Lindell’s “heated political commentary.” You know, the baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud that have yet to be proven anywhere.

This sort of thing may work in a motion to dismiss:

MyPillow has never entered the public debate about the 2020 election; again, it has made no statement about Dominion whatsoever.

But it makes absolute zero sense in a standalone lawsuit filed by MyPillow, especially when its followed by this:

Defendants’ illegal campaign to punish and silence their critics violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment as applied to the states and their political subdivisions and agents under the Fourteenth Amendment and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

According to Lindell’s own claims, MyPillow is not, nor has it ever been, a critic of Dominion. You can’t sue over speech you haven’t made. You can make a claim about prior restraint, but that’s going to fail because Dominion isn’t a government entity, nor has it secured a court order forbidding Lindell’s company from “entering the public debate.”

Just really amazing stuff in here:

Defendants’ reprisal actions were motivated, at least in part, by MyPillow’s and its CEO’s exercise of their free speech rights protected under the First Amendment and, as applied against the states and their political subdivisions and agents, the Fourteenth Amendment.

Again, the rights Lindell swears MyPillow isn’t utilizing.

Galaxy brain litigation:

As the result of Defendants’ actions, and as expected and intended by them, Plaintiff suffered the loss of substantial property interests, including, but not limited to, loss of long-standing business relationships, loss of supplier contracts, and loss of access to promotional access in media.

Plaintiff was not provided due process in connection with the loss of its property interests caused by Defendants.

I guess Lindell is unaware of the lawsuit he’s currently trying to dismiss. That litigation is due process exemplified. Dominion has made accusations. Lindell is being given the opportunity to dispute those allegations. This is literally the due process he’s claiming has been denied him by Dominion’s lawsuit. (Also, Dominion isn’t a government entity so the rights violation claims are still utterly ridiculous even without this absurdity piled on top.)

To sum up: the claims will fail because they are terrible, but mostly because they are also being brought against a non-government entity under the theory that it’s actually a government entity. I assume the judge handling this will read it as a motion to dismiss that was filed in the wrong court and kindly ask Lindell to stop wasting the court’s time.

Filed Under: 1st amendment, defamation, free speech, mike lindell, pillows
Companies: dominion, dominion voting systems, mypillow

The Pillow Dude's 'Free Speech' Social Media Website Will Moderate 'Swear Words' Because Of Course It Will

Content Moderation

from the everyone-moderates dept

It seems like every few months a new social media app comes on the scene, promising to be the “free speech” social media app that says it won’t “censor” (by which they mean moderate) anything. And those of us who have been in this space for more than two seconds laugh. Because every single internet service that allows third party speech sooner or later realizes that moderation is not optional — it’s necessary to keep any site running. At a basic level, it starts with spam. Leaving up spam makes a site unusable. After that, there are things that you are legally required to remove, including child sexual abuse material and (in some cases) copyright infringing material.

Sooner or later, though, every such site realizes that it has to go through the content moderation learning curve. That doesn’t mean they all need to follow the same rules or do the same thing, but they do need to recognize that content moderation questions are always there. This includes things like “how do you deal with abuse and harassment” and just generally how do you deal with trolls who are clearly up to no good. There are many different approaches to this, but insisting that you’re the “free speech” site that will “do nothing” is not a realistic statement. It’s one that demonstrates ignorance.

Enter the MyPillow dude, Mike Lindell. Last month Lindell announced that he was building his own social media site, with a tagline “voices of free speech.” I’m not even sure what that means. He insisted that people will have “10 times more followers” on his janky platform, and that Twitter and Google will “be a thing of the past,” which shows a bit of bravado, I guess.

Of course, the “free speech” part of his “voices of free speech” is apparently a lot more limited than is implied. Lindell has now announced that “the four swear words” will not be allowed. There are just four?

?You don?t get to use the four swear words: the c-word, the n-word, the f-word, or God?s name in vain,? Lindell says in the video.

Huh. So, I’m not even convinced which “c-word” is being used here, and I note that “the s-word” is apparently allowed? From what was said it sounds like Lindell and whatever programmer he’s pulled into this wacky scheme have implemented a lame keyword filter, which anyone who has done work in content moderation will tell you does not work nearly as well as people expect it to. People who want to use that words will quickly find alternatives, g-d dammit. I mean, f0ck, who doesn’t know that s#it?

Anyway, this has all the hallmarks of yet another social media train wreck, but I look forward to Lindell and Trump fighting it out for users of their new social networks, when they’re not in court relying on Section 230 to protect them from legal liability of whatever crazy things their users are posting.

Filed Under: content moderation, free speech, mike lindell, social media, swear words
Companies: frank, mypillow