London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 14, 2025

Privacy-focused Facebook competitor MeWe says it's gained more than 2 million users in the past week

Privacy-focused Facebook competitor MeWe says it's gained more than 2 million users in the past week

Alt-right fringe groups have flocked to alternative social networks as Facebook and Twitter clamp down on hate speech and false election fraud claims.
MeWe, a social media app that bills itself as a secure and private alternative to Facebook, has gained 2.5 million new users in the last week, the company said, as fringe groups search for new platforms with less oversight.

After the November 2020 election, MeWe made headlines for hosting Stop the Steal, QAnon, and other alt-right groups that were kicked off mainstream platforms. When asked about moderation in an AP interview earlier this week, Weinstein declined to disclose the size of MeWe's content moderation team. In an email, a company spokesperson said the site's policies prohibit "inciting violence, hate, harassment, bullying, illegal activity," and other similar actions.

As former President Donald Trump and supporters spread baseless claims of election fraud, eventually culminating in a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, Facebook's data privacy protections and social media policies at large have come under tighter scrutiny.

Earlier in January, the Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp updated its privacy policy to share more data with Facebook. Insider reported that, after the change to WhatsApp's terms of service, the encrypted messaging app Signal saw downloads increase 4,200%.

Founded by Mark Weinstein, MeWe was launched in 2016 and bills itself as focused on privacy and data ownership. All users agree to a "privacy bill of rights," and branding for the company is centered around security.

MeWe's frequently asked question page assures users: "MeWe does not spy on your private posts, we think the way those other companies do things like that is creepy." In addition, MeWe says that members own their own data.

The app itself, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play, features a newsfeed, private text and video chats, groups, and a Close Friends setting. As of Wednesday, MeWe reported 16 million users. For context, Facebook reported 1.82 billion daily active users in September 2020.

USA Today first reported on MeWe's newfound popularity.

David Westreich, a spokesperson for MeWe, said "our membership spikes frequently - as people worldwide seek a social network that respects them as customers to serve and delight, not data to share, target, or sell." The recent membership spike took the app as high as number 2 in the Google Play Store rankings on Friday.

Crunchbase data shows $14.5 million in funding for MeWe across five seed funding rounds in its lifetime. A press release from 2018 attributes all of MeWe's funding up to that point to capital from "high net worth investors."

More recently, it appears that the company has benefited from governmental coronavirus relief: ProPublica reported that Sgrouples Inc., MeWe's parent company, received a PPP loan between $150,000 and $300,000 in April 2020.
Comments

Oh ya 5 year ago
Yes I myself dumped whatsapp as did friends. Thank goodness I never did Facebook but have friends that are dumping it also. If you have Facebook, Netflix the movie Social Dilemma . The gew boy is worried as he took out front page ads in India begging people not to leave his site. There are 400 million users there and I guess lots are dumping his junk

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
×