Indicted Chinese exile controls Gettr social media site, ex-employees say

[hedda_foil]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/26/gettr-guo-wengui-social-media

NEW YORK — An exiled Chinese tycoon indicted in New York earlier this month in a billion-dollar fraud case controls the conservative social media platform Gettr and used it to promote cryptocurrencies and propaganda, former employees have told The Washington Post.

They said the arrested expatriate, Guo Wengui, and his longtime money manager, William Je, called the shots at the company while Donald Trump senior adviser Jason Miller was its chief executive and public face. Miller served in that capacity from before Gettr’s July 4, 2021, launch until this month, when he returned to work on his third Trump presidential campaign.

Gettr doled out tens of thousands of dollars to right-wing figures including Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon, sent money to contractors affiliated with Guo, and altered information on Gettr users that law enforcement agencies had sought, according to the former employees and internal company documents obtained by The Post.
[snip]
Guo was known to have been a Gettr investor, but his dominant financing role and ability to influence hiring and content decisions at the platform have not previously been reported.
[more]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/26/gettr-guo-wengui-social-media

[RockRaven]

1. "...and altered information on Gettr users that law enforcement agencies had sought..."

Say what now?

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Covering up murder threats against Pence, and computer ransom

Gettr sometimes received subpoenas for information about users, including the email addresses with which they had registered accounts and the IP addresses of the computers they had used. Those included a ransomware operator and a user who had posted that he would kill “Judas” former vice president Mike Pence if he got a chance, according to copies of subpoenas Gettr received and those users’ posts on Gettr.

Badejo’s job included responding to those legal demands, which required him to attest that they were truthful and complete under penalty of perjury.

But he said he discovered that the company had been answering such requests by providing altered IP addresses in which the final sequence of numbers had been replaced with the number zero.

Badejo told Miller and Huang that the practice was putting everyone involved in legal peril.

And, of course, Miller, the paid face of Guo, is now at the heart of the Trump campaign again:

“It was always a matter of when and not if I returned to help re-elect President Trump in 2024, and seeing the current state of the country under Joe Biden I couldn’t remain sidelined any longer,” Miller said in a statement.

Following the 2020 campaign, Miller launched Gettr, a right-wing social media site, but it has often been eclipsed by Trump’s own Truth Social platform. Miller will step down from the company to return to the Trump camp.

“You can impact the world a lot by launching a social media platform, but nothing compares to getting President Trump back into office,” Miller said.

“I will of course remain engaged with the GETTR platform and its user base in an emeritus position, but my focus going forward will be helping President Trump return to the White House.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3851624-jason-miller-joins-trumps-2024-campaign/

Because nothing says "integrity" like "paid agent of foreign criminal is central to this campaign". Again.

[Kid Berwyn]

2. Guo helped Bannon spread Hunter Laptop Big Lie

The Naked Truth Behind Hunter’s Naked Twitter Pics

RUSS BAKER
WhoWhatWhy, 12/19/22

Excerpt…

Simply put, pre-Musk Twitter standards prevented the platform from being used to distribute personal sexual material about an individual, akin to “revenge porn.”

Snip…

The infamous Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, and a little-known Chinese tycoon (Guo Wengui) who had been banished by the regime in Beijing seem to have conspired to hype the salacious material about Biden’s son and to get it talked about right before the 2020 election. Twitter, though, properly refused to allow its platform to be used for that.

That’s the main story. The ruthless and unprincipled political right that has increasingly taken over this country will stop at nothing to ruin others. And a man like Musk, with his own tawdry record on the sexual front, has the audacity to try to build his own Twitter legitimacy by claiming to expose, via Taibbi, “Biden’s improper influence” on the previous Twitter regime.

Bottom line: Before Musk, Twitter tried to do its job. Now, Musk, in tandem with Taibbi — and maybe Bannon and other lovely people — are trying to trick the clueless Fox masses with yet another misleading meme that can circulate and further enrage these oxygen-deprived folks.

I can think of a few good follow-up stories:

* Learn more about the Chinese tycoon and his organization — and what other levers they may have their hands on.

* Learn more about any possible coordination between Bannon, the tycoon, and the Republicans to generate an “October surprise” against Biden.

* Learn more about Musk’s true intentions and how he fits into the increasingly troubled “truth environment.”

Source: https://whowhatwhy.org/hidden-power/the-naked-truth-behind-hunters-naked-twitter-pics/

[crickets]

4. K&R for visibility.