Still, buoyed by endorsements from conservative influencers like Owens, former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone, and Twitter pundit Ian Miles Cheong, Freedom Phone orders flooded in. In reality, it was a rebranding of a Chinese phone that was available online for $120-substantially less than the Freedom Phone’s $500 price tag. The video was a hit, but Freedom Phone’s promotional materials were curiously devoid of technical details. “Imagine if Mark Zuckerberg censored MLK or Abraham Lincoln,” Finman said in the promotional video. His promotional video for the phone quickly went viral on the right in July 2021, with Finman promising a phone loaded with apps for conservative outlets like Newsmax and One America News. In Freedom Phone’s first days, it seemed like Finman, the self-proclaimed “youngest Bitcoin millionaire,” might have the tech and marketing prowess to pull off the creation of an entirely new smartphone. Finman has even sued to keep his face and name from ever being associated with Freedom Phone in the future. In a bitter, previously unreported legal battle that began in April 2022, the men behind Freedom Phone’s backers have accused one another of blowing their windfall profits-in one case, in a $10,000 shopping spree for video games.
Two years later, though, Freedom Phone’s business is falling apart amid customer complaints. “I’m holding a freaking phone that is not controlled by Apple or Google,” conservative personality Candace Owens said in an Instagram video. Even after The Daily Beast and other media outlets revealed that the Freedom Phone was just a cheap Chinese-made phone sold at a hefty markup, it was a hit, quickly selling roughly $4 million worth, according to court records.
#Candace owens freedom phones free#
Dubbed the “ Freedom Phone,” the $500 device was the creation of Bitcoin mogul Erik Finman, who promised customers a phone loaded with conservative apps and free from liberal Silicon Valley influence.Ĭonservative influencers encouraged their fans to buy the phone, receiving a sizable cut of each sale for themselves. There are no details regarding the specifications of the phone but when asked to justify the price increase over the Umidigi model, Finman said the Freedom Phone features customised hardware and improved memory, The Daily Beast reported.įinman also tweeted the phone was made in Hong Kong, although Umidigi is located in Shenzen in mainland China.In the summer of 2021, conservatives aggrieved over Big Tech censorship saw a new smartphone as their savior. The website also uses the Trump-echoing slogan: "Not just making America great.
The phone will come pre-loaded with apps apparently designed to appeal to supporters of former Celebrity Apprentice host Trump, with the official website showing the conservative Newsmax and One America News Network prominently on the phone. "The Freedom Phone offers an app store that promises not to censor apps but has not made it clear how it will perform this vital process while keeping out malware," he said. He says the phone has an uncensorable app store, another red flag for Hickey, who says Google and Apple implement a code-inspection process to try and avoid malware.
0 kommentar(er)
