Oculus Founder Secretly Funding Pro-Trump Propaganda
Ashley Allen / 8 years ago
Palmer Luckey, founder of VR start-up Oculus, now owned by Facebook, has been secretly funding an unofficial Pro-Donald Trump group famous for its memes and “s***posting” about rival Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton, a new report from The Daily Beast has revealed. Luckey, who is thought to be worth around $700 million after he sold Oculus to Facebook, is a major financial backer of Nimble America, a “social welfare 501(c)4 non-profit” organisation that is supporting Trump’s campaign to become President of the USA.
Nimble America’s raison d’être is to prove that “s***posting is powerful and meme magic is real,” all in service of securing the Republican nominee’s place in the White House. “We conquered Reddit and drive narrative on social media, conquered the [mainstream media], now it’s time to get our most delicious memes in front of Americans whether they like it or not,” Nimble America wrote on reddit.
While Luckey insists that he is merely a financial benefactor of Nimble America – “I’ve got plenty of money,” Luckey said. “Money is not my issue. I thought it sounded like a real jolly good time” – he is listed on the group’s website as being its Vice-President, and The Daily Beast’s investigation has connected Luckey to the reddit pseudonym NimbleRichMan, who has outlined plans to trigger an “American Revolution […] funded by wealthy individuals.”
The Daily Beast also alleges that Luckey has been working with controversial Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos, who became his liaison into Nimble America.
In response to these revelations, Oculus Rift game developers have begun to distance themselves from the company, according to Ars Technica, with a significant number of them publicly denouncing Luckey’s actions or even cancelling in-production games for the VR headset.
Facebook is yet to comment on Luckey’s association with Nimble America.