MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell says he's spending at least $1 million a month to build his social media empire, with 2 apps he hopes will rival YouTube and Facebook
- Mike Lindell has quietly launched his Frank Speech app, which he hopes will rival YouTube.
- Lindell told Insider he plans to launch Frank Social, a competitor to Facebook, at the end of March.
After a year of delays, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has finally launched Frank Speech, a video-streaming app that he says is meant to be a YouTube competitor.
However, the pillow CEO told Insider that he's not quite done yet. Lindell said on Wednesday night that he is investing upwards of $1 million a month on Frank Speech and to get his social media platform, Frank Social, up and running later this month.
"I've spent millions and millions of dollars on Frank Speech. Because I have my own servers, I have everything protected. I spent $5 million, just for the protection for both the app and the Frank Speech website," Lindell said.
The Frank Speech app was launched in the first week of March on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play store, for Android, according to Lindell.
When Insider explored the app on Wednesday night, it appeared to carry 10 video channels — including "Lindell TV," from which Lindell streams his nightly report, and one for former Newsmax host Emerald Robinson.
The launch of Frank Speech comes almost a year after Lindell first said he would be building a social media platform. Last April, he released a website under the same name, although it was plagued by launch-day errors.
"No one can de-platform me now. I have physical servers in two different places in the United States, in Dallas and Detroit. And these are physical servers that I bought, and I bought these things to protect them," Lindell told Insider, referring to protections against cyber-attacks that he says he purchased.
He claimed that the app is "100% protected," although he remains concerned about "bots and trolls" getting in and leaving comments.
Lindell also noted that Frank Social — the social media platform he is building — is due to launch in the last week of March.
When asked if Frank Social would be viewed as a competitor to Trump's Twitter-like Truth Social, he said he thought of it as an alternative to Facebook. Lindell also described YouTube and Vimeo as being "as evil as they come," which prompted him to invest in the Frank Speech platform.
While there were no reviews of Frank Speech on the Apple Store at press time, there were close to 30 reviews of the app on the Google Play store.
Some reviewers praised the app for helping to promote "free speech" and thanked Lindell for helping to "save our country," while others complained that they were unable to "share anything" and looked forward to "full app functionality."
Lindell told Insider in December 2021 that he had already spent $25 million pushing baseless voter-fraud claims related to the 2020 presidential election and that he was willing to spend everything he had on the cause.