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Politico | The newest MAGA app is tied to a Bannon-allied Chinese billionaire

  • GETTR has existed as a Chinese language social media network linked to Guo Wengui
  • It was unveiled as a new platform by former Trump adviser Jason Miller on Thursday

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Steve Bannon and fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui in 2018. File photo: AFP
POLITICO

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Tina Nguyen on politico.com on July 1, 2021.

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On Tuesday, Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese billionaire who runs a Chinese-language media network with Trump adviser Steve Bannon, posted a video on his site GNEWS reminding viewers to back up their social media posts on GETTR.

“Today I have to post this video on our G-TV to inform everybody that everything is fine, because the GETTR platform is adjusting,” he said in Mandarin, according to an English translation posted on the site. “GETTR is not ours, so we should follow the instructions. Right? GETTR is cleaning up all the data and accounts. Afterwards, everybody has to re-register their accounts.”

The site was then wiped.

Two days later, Donald Trump’s former adviser Jason Miller announced that GETTR – a Chinese-language site for dissidents opposing the Chinese Communist Party – would soon launch as a pro-MAGA free-speech social media platform.

GETTR was announced as a brand new social media platform for Trump’s fans, a social media outpost where MAGA types could post freely and, through the mere act of signing up, stick it to Big Tech. It was billed as the logical extension of the former president’s months-long battle with the major social media companies, two of which had booted him in the aftermath of the Capitol riots on January 6.

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