Rebekah Mercer is funding Parler, the social-media app touted by Republican politicians and pundits that conservatives are flocking to

• At least one member of the Mercer family is funding Parler, the social media app touted by Republican politicians and pundits, according to The Wall Street Journal.
• Parler CEO John Matze confirmed to The Journal that Rebekah Mercer has been one of the top investors in the company since its founding in 2018.
• "John and I started Parler to provide a neutral platform for free speech, as our founders intended," Mercer wrote in a post on the site following The Journal report.
• Mercer and her father, Robert Mercer, have funded conservative causes in the past, and were among the most influential backers of President Donald Trump in 2016.

At least one member of the Mercer family is funding Parler, the social media app touted by Republican politicians and pundits, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Parler CEO John Matze confirmed to The Journal that Rebekah Mercer has been one of the top investors in the company since its founding in 2018. Other sources reportedly said it was a family investment, but Mercer said in a Parler post that her father, billionaire hedge-fund manager Robert Mercer, was not involved.

"John and I started Parler to provide a neutral platform for free speech, as our founders intended," Mercer wrote in another post on the site following The Journal report.

Matze has touted Parler as a "free speech" network and said that the company does not utilize fact-checkers for content published on the platform.

Mercer and her father have funded conservative causes in the past, and were among the most influential backers of President Donald Trump in 2016, though Business Insider's Dave Levinthal reported they did not show up for the president with the same level of support in 2020.

Conservatives have been flocking to Parler recently in protest of other social media apps that place fact-check labels on posts. The app was downloaded millions of times in the days following the election, jumping to the top spot in the App Store.

Following the election, Twitter labeled many of Trump's tweets as "misleading," including claims that he won the election and unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud. President-elect Joe Biden has been projected to win the election, and no evidence of widespread voter fraud has been found.

The tweet labels, and ongoing claims of censorship on Twitter and Facebook, prompted conservative media personalities and politicians to encourage their followers to join Parler.

"The ever increasing tyranny and hubris of our tech overlords demands that someone lead the fight against data mining, and for the protection of free speech online," Mercer said in her Parler post. "That someone is Parler, a beacon to all who value their liberty, free speech, and personal privacy."