The MAGA world's "Freedom Phones" are as American as their red hats... MAGA World’s ‘Freedom Phone’ Actually Budget Chinese Phone MAGA Influencers are pushing a phone preloaded with apps like Parler and Rumble that appears to be a vastly more expensive version of a phone made in China. https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-worlds-freedom-phone-actually-budget-chinese-phone The pro-Trump internet went wild on Wednesday for the Freedom Phone, a $500 smartphone that comes stocked with conservative apps and promises to liberate anyone else who buys it from Silicon Valley censorship. The American flag-branded phone was immediately promoted by a wide range of right-wing figures, including former Trump adviser Roger Stone, Jan. 6 rally organizer Ali Alexander, and pundit Dinesh D’Souza. “I’m holding a freaking phone that is not controlled by Apple or Google,” conservative personality Candace Owens told her fans in an Instagram video. “We made the switch immediately.” Despite being lauded by some of the right-wing media’s leading figures, though, the Freedom Phone’s buyers could be getting less than they expect for its $500 price tag. That’s because the Freedom Phone appears to be merely a more expensive rebranding of a budget Chinese phone available elsewhere for a fraction of the Freedom Phone’s price. The Freedom Phone was created by Erik Finman, the self-proclaimed “youngest bitcoin millionaire” and one of Time Magazine’s “Most Influential Teens of 2014.” In a video announcing the phone, Finman said he was inspired to create the phone after the tech giants’ crackdown on both Donald Trump and conservative social media app Parler in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot. “Imagine if Mark Zuckerberg censored MLK or Abraham Lincoln,” Finman said in the video. Freedom Phone’s website is nearly totally devoid of technical information about the device. Finman declares in the promotional video that the Freedom Phone is “comparable to the best smartphones on the market” and “truly is the best phone in the world.” In fact, Freedom Phone appears to be a simple rebranding of a budget phone called the “Umidigi A9 Pro,” made by the Chinese tech company Umidigi. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Finman confirmed that the Freedom Phone was manufactured by Umidigi, but couldn’t say immediately which Umidigi phone it was based on. The Freedom Phone’s $500 price tag would represent a substantial markup on the Umidigi A9 Pro. That phone is available on Chinese retail giant AliExpress for $120 — less than one quarter of the price of a Freedom Phone. Asked to justify the Freedom Phone’s notable price increase over the Umidigi model, Finman claimed vaguely that the Freedom Phone features customized hardware and improved memory. He committed Wednesday to publishing the phone’s technical specifications — basic details any company selling a phone should be able to provide. As of Thursday afternoon, however, no technical specifications had been provided to The Daily Beast or added to the Freedom Phone’s website. In an interview, Finman claimed that the Freedom Phone is manufactured in Hong Kong. “Nothing’s manufactured itself in mainland China,” Finman said. According to Umidigi’s website, the tech manufacturer’s headquarters is located in Shenzhen, a mainland Chinese city near Hong Kong. Umidigi didn’t respond to a request for comment. The Freedom Phone also comes preloaded with an array of free apps for social media networks Parler and MeWe, would-be YouTube competitor Rumble, and media networks One America News and Newsmax. Popular battle royale shooter Fortnite is also preinstalled on the Freedom Phone— a fact that confused more than one conservative influencer who promoted the product. It’s not clear why a handful of free apps, all of which are currently available in the Google Play app store for other Android devices, would justify the price increase over the Umidigi. Even if the apps were ultimately banned from Google’s store in the future, users could still install them on non-Freedom Phone Android phones through a process called “sideloading.” The vagaries of Freedom Phone’s actual specifications has produced some awkwardness among the Freedom Phone’s legions of conservative influencers. For example, the Freedom Phone’s “Freedom OS” operating system is based on Google’s Android operating system, according to Finman. But during a livestream video promoting the phone, right-wing activist Anna Khait was confused by her fans’ basic questions about the phone. “Is it an Android?” Khait said. “I’m not really sure. No, it’s a Freedom Phone.” While Freedom Phone’s founder has failed to include basic details about its device, he did line up a massive ad campaign among conservative influencers. Along with Owens, Stone, D’Souza, and Alexander, the Freedom Phone has also been backed by a number of other figures popular on the right, including Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, journalist John Solomon, and Students for Trump cofounder Ryan Fournier. Many of the Freedom Phone’s prominent endorsers urged their followers to use a promo code to buy the phone, suggesting that the influencers will receive a cut when their fans buy the phone. Each referred sale results in a $50 payment to the influencer who endorsed the phone, according to a website explaining Freedom Phone's "promoters" program. Freedom Phone’s promotional campaign generated attention across Twitter, as conservatives promoted it and critics pointed out its potential technical shortfalls. Finman spoke to The Daily Beast from the Freedom Phone’s launch party, right as he realized the phone’s name had become a “trending topic” on Twitter. “Oh shit, this is trending,” Finman said. “Wow.”
The account for Freedom Phone, an anti-big tech smartphone for conservatives, is still tweeting from an iPhone https://www.dailydot.com/debug/freedom-phone-twitter-iphone/ “I’m not only the Hair Club president, but I’m also a client,” is one of the most famous lines in advertising. The Freedom Phone should probably take a page from Hair Club for Men’s playbook. Because the Freedom Phone’s Twitter account is tweeting with an iPhone. The Freedom Phone was announced last summer. Founder Erik Finman, who describes himself as “the world’s youngest bitcoin billionaire,” said he created the phone and “its uncensorable app store” to take on big tech. “It does everything your current phone does, except censor you and spy on you.” Finman said that it wouldn’t ban apps, such as Parler, which come preloaded on the Freedom Phone. He also blasted social media platforms for banning people like former President Donald Trump. “If they will censor a president, they will censor anyone.” Finman stopped short of claiming that using his device would impact a platform’s ability to enforce its terms of service. Nevertheless, conservatives were thrilled. Many rushed to preorder the phone. The Daily Dot later reported that the $500 phone was just a rebranded Chinese phone that costs as little as $119. Security experts also expressed concern that the Chinese-made device had notoriously poor security. This did little to tamper enthusiasm. After many months, customers started receiving Freedom Phones this week. It’s not clear anyone’s actually using the phone, however. Not even Freedom Phone is using a Freedom Phone. Astute observers on Twitter noted that the most recent tweet from Freedom Phone’s account says it was sent using “Twitter for iPhone.” The tweet from Wednesday announces the phones’ shipment. Finman retweeted the tweet from his verified Twitter account. “The Freedom Phone isn’t even using a Freedom Phone,” tweeted one person. Freedom Phone isn’t its only (presumed) customer that isn’t using a Freedom Phone. Last summer, pundit Candace Owens wrote on Instagram about how “excited” she was to get rid of her iPhone. As of Tuesday, Owens was still tweeting with an iPhone.
Hey... Remember the "Freedom Phone"? Let's see how its going. Conservative ‘Freedom Phone’ Backers Turn On Each Other The Trump-friendly Freedom Phone has imploded over allegations of $10,000 video game shopping sprees. Phone buyers were left with broken “paperweights,” according to its founder. https://www.thedailybeast.com/conservative-freedom-phone-backers-turn-on-each-other In the summer of 2021, conservatives aggrieved over Big Tech censorship saw a new smartphone as their savior. 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. Conservative influencers encouraged their fans to buy the phone, receiving a sizable cut of each sale for themselves. 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. “I’m holding a freaking phone that is not controlled by Apple or Google,” conservative personality Candace Owens said in an Instagram video. “We made the switch immediately.” Two years later, though, Freedom Phone’s business is falling apart amid customer complaints. 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. Finman has even sued to keep his face and name from ever being associated with Freedom Phone in the future. 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. 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. “Imagine if Mark Zuckerberg censored MLK or Abraham Lincoln,” Finman said in the promotional video. The video was a hit, but Freedom Phone’s promotional materials were curiously devoid of technical details. 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. 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. Finman quickly sold at least 8,000 units, according to court records, raising somewhere between $3.5 and $4 million. But payment processors handling the orders refused to hand the money over to Finman, apparently concerned that the phone was a scam. With millions of dollars held in limbo and angry customers waiting for their phones, Finman cut a deal with ClearCellular, a Utah-based company that had made its own phone before. Finman sold the Freedom Phone branding and its parent company, Finman LLC, to ClearCellular. While the sales contract has been sealed in the ensuing court battle, itincluded a $300,000 one-timepayment to Finman, an annual $240,000 salary for the Freedom Phone founder as its chief marketing officer, and a $75 payment for each phone sold, according to court filings. “Ultimately, as we helped him, he ran off with the money.” Finman and ClearCelullar founder Michael Proper had met a year earlier, at a presidential fundraiser for failed candidate and former child star Brock Pierce. In a September 2021 interview with The New York Times, Finman compared himself to basketball legend Michael Jordan and Proper to Nike founder Phil Knight. Together, Finman said, they would create a cultural and business phenomenon on the scale of Nike’s Air Jordans. But while Michael Jordan has earned more than $1 billion since launching Air Jordan with Nike, Finman’s partnership with Proper soon proved to be less successful. In March 2022, Finman resigned from his chief marketing officer position. A month later, he sued Proper and ClearCellular over a host of claims, including defamation and unpaid wages. “Mr. Proper’s conduct was anything but proper,” Finman’s lawyers wrote in their complaint. Proper and an attorney representing Finman declined to comment. Owens didn’t respond to an email seeking comment. Testifying in court in August 2022 about the initial deal, Proper said he thought he was rescuing Finman from his failure to actually deliver the phones. In his retelling, Finman was a great marketer, but stood little chance of fulfilling the thousands of outstanding orders on his own. “They had a lot of negative reviews about people calling Erik’s bluff,” Proper said in court. “This guy did not create a phone. This guy does not understand the industry.” Proper later claimed he was also concerned that influencers like Owens would be embarrassed if Finman failed to ship enough working phones. “We wanted to help Candace Owens not get hurt,” Proper said in court. In his testimony, Proper complained that Finman failed to deliver on a supposed promise to introduce Proper to Owens. The relationship between Finman and Proper quickly soured. In Finman’s telling, ClearCellular blew through deadlines, promising to mail the phones by September 2021 but not shipping them until February 2022. Some of the Freedom Phones didn’t work when they arrived, Finman claimed, with customers calling them “paperweights.” Aggravating tensions between the two men, a notice appeared on another website operated by Proper encouraging angry Freedom Phone customers to launch a class-action consumer fraud lawsuit against Finman. The two also clashed over the millions of dollars left in Freedom Phone’s accounts. Finman claims that he had to dip into his own finances to pay Freedom Phone MAGA influencer endorsers, and to fund some of the orders himself. ClearCellular took months to take control of the money, according to Finman, in what he interpreted as an effort to avoid taking over the responsibility of fulfilling the orders. When $400,000 of the money was unfrozen, Finman alleged in a lawsuit, Proper blew $10,000 in a “shopping spree” at Costco buying video games and other electronics. For his part, Proper alleged in court papers that Finman took $500,000 from Freedom Phone’s accounts. Asked at one point to hand over the accounts, according to Proper, Finman instead responded only with a spreadsheet he had made himself to explain where the money had gone. “Ultimately, as we helped him, he ran off with the money,” Proper said in his August 2022 testimony, wondering aloud why Finman wasn’t facing criminal charges. Along with Owens, the ongoing court battle has touched on other conservative figures, including former Trump White House Steve Bannon. After leaving ClearCellular, Finman claims Bannon hired him to work on a cryptocurrency project. During cross-examination in August 2022, Proper’s lawyer asked Finman if that new job with Bannon proved that Finman’s reputation hadn’t been destroyed. Finman shot back that working with Bannon, who was then awaiting sentencing for what would become a four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress, didn’t prove that his career had survived Freedom Phone. “I feel like my reputation is not necessarily proven to be superb if that is a business partner,” Finman said, noting that Bannon is “awaiting sentencing to go to prison.” Much of the legal fight so far has focused on whether ClearCellular, operating as Freedom Phone, has the right to use Finman’s viral video promoting the phone. While a judge eventually ruled that Proper could use the video, the company took it down anyway, costing what Proper claims amounted to thousands of dollars in monthly sales generated by the video. In court, Finman reflected on how Freedom Phone’s collapse hurt its customers, who had each spent $500 on the idea that the supposed tech wunderkindcould give them a phone for conservatives free from the Silicon Valley giants. Instead, Finman said, the Freedom Phone debacle “soils” his reputation. “A lot of these are elderly customers,” Finman testified in August. “I mean, it’s horrible. It’s heartbreaking.”