‘Stop The Steal’ Organizer Ali Alexander Has A New Grift
“Stop The Steal” organizer and felon Ali (Akbar) Alexander claimed in February he was plotting a civil war. Two months later, he’s focused on a crypto-platform where users can put money in but can’t cash out.
Ali (Akbar) Alexander laid low after the January 6 insurrection but he emerged the next month with plans for civil war and saying he was “plotting” to “do away with” both the press and the “systems that control us.”
It seems that Alexander, who has previously pleaded guilty to two felonies, one related to property theft and the other to credit card abuse, got diverted. His new focus is a social media platform called BitClout.
Right Wing Watch describes BitClout as “a combination of Twitter, Patreon, and Robinhood” where “Creators and celebrities can monetize their internet presence by allowing their fans to invest in their ‘creator coins,’ while general users can speculate and invest in people and posts to drive up their value as they would on the stock market."
According to Right Wing Watch, Alexander has been prioritizing BitClout over politics. He now spends as much as 12 hours a day promoting BitClout on Clubhouse "to anyone who will listen."
As one of BitClout’s more popular users, Alexander is making money off it and he has developed two subscription-based websites that supposedly help other users to monetize their activities on the platform. That income probably comes in handy if Alexander’s MAGA besties now think he’s a bad look for them. He has also been banned from major payment apps, like PayPal.
But there’s already trouble in Alexander’s new paradise. More from Right Wing Watch:
While BitClout has excited users clamoring for a censorship-resistant social media platform, the application has already courted plenty of controversy since its launch in March 2021. The start-up has been criticized for prepopulating its network with some 15,000 accounts created around popular Twitter profiles without their account-holder’s permission, allowing users to invest in coins for people like Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, YouTube sensation Mr. Beast, and Ariana Grande.
Not surprisingly, some of those people have objected to being added to a platform and commoditized without their permission. Then there’s the fact that there’s no way to take all your money out.
BitClout has also been criticized for having no internal mechanism to withdraw funds from the site. While users use Bitcoin to purchase BTCLT to use on BitClout, the platform does not offer users a mechanism to trade that BTCLT back to Bitcoin, meaning there is no official way to cash out—a red flag for experienced crypto users. (At present, the only way to exchange BTCLT is to use Peer-to-Peer transfers, or a new website called BitSwap, which allows you to exchange the coins for Ethereum at 60% of its official listed price on bitclout.com).
I guess civil war will have to wait while Alexander makes a different kind of killing.