David Brock Plans Paid-For Twitter Rival Exclusively for Liberals

David Brock, the founder of Media Matters, plans to charge people to use a new “Twitter-like” website, with only progressives allowed to participate.

Part of Brock’s ShareBlue media network includes plans for a service similar to Twitter where “subscribers pay a fee to participate in a Twitter-like environment for the opposition, free from conservative trolls and harassment.” Subscribers to ShareBlue will be safe in their paid-for echo chamber, interacting only with people who hold the same or similar opinions to their own.

According to Brock, the premium content will be “a powerful way of merging our connection to the grassroots with our platform.” The plan was one of eight presented at a conference in Florida last weekend, with the mission not just to attack recently inaugurated President Donald Trump, but to raise revenue from their media consumers. Documents from the conference were obtained by the Washington Free Beacon and clearly show the link between the activism and money: “impact and monetization are not mutually exclusive at Shareblue,” the documents state.

Brock told donors at the conference that “in the second half of 2017, we will move the focus to monetization with the goal of bringing in revenue in Q2 of 2018.” These donors may not have been aware of what John Morgan, a big Clinton donor and a prospective candidate for the governorship of Florida, reportedly said about contributing to Brock: “anybody who gives money to [David Brock] is pissing down a rat hole.”

Brock’s donor network is seen by some on the left as challenging George Soros’ Democracy Alliance organisation.

The new social media that Brock is looking to create seems to be his next step in creating “the Breitbart of the left.” After the election, Politico revealed that Brock and Media Matters were turning away from combating Fox News to attacking Breitbart News. Along with raising money, information could be collected from subscribers that Brock may then use to attack Trump with.

Jack Hadfield is a student at the University of Warwick and a regular contributor to Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @ToryBastard_, on Gab @JH or email him at jack@yiannopoulos.net.