A Pro-Trump Social Network Wants to Corner the Anti-Vax ‘Jizz Market’
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Fighting to survive in the crowded ecosystem of far-right social media companies, the pro-Trump platform Gettr has in recent weeks held high-level deliberations on the oddest of business pivots: remaking the site to add an online clearinghouse for human sperm.
But it’s not just any sperm. The proposal would see the company expand to include a marketplace for semen from men who haven’t taken any of the vaccines against Covid-19.
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Three sources familiar with the matter, and a fourth briefed on the situation, describe serious, repeated discussions about creating the online anti-vax semen market, in which unvaccinated men would self-advertise and sell sperm to the highest bidder. Two of the sources say stakeholders have gone so far as to explore possible “testing requirements” to ensure specimens came from unvaccinated donors.
Some staff have also expressed skepticism internally about the feasibility of the plan, noting restrictions of semen sales in other countries and other hurdles. All four sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe these deliberations, with one adding that “it’s just so embarrassing, man.”
It’s “the most ludicrous fucking thing to come out of pro-Trump social media in a long time, and that is saying something,” another of the sources says.
A version of the idea was recently floated by one of Gettr’s most prominent backers: Guo Wengui, a billionaire fugitive from the Chinese Communist Party. A major Trumpworld ally, Guo was an early bankroller for the platform, apparently through his “family foundation,” as The Daily Beast first reported in 2021. The app itself shared code with Guo’s earlier social media platform, Getome. Though Gettr and Guo have, at times, tried to publicly downplay Guo’s involvement, Guo has repeatedly livestreamed himself talking about his strong influence over the company. Similarly, multiple people intimately familiar with the situation have explicitly described to Rolling Stone Guo’s prominent role, whether formalized or not.
The FBI arrested Guo on Wednesday morning on federal charges that he orchestrated up to $1 billion in fraud, largely by targeting retail investors with phony opportunities and using the money to buy luxury items.
Guo himself is an adherent to the conspiracy theory that the Covid vaccines will eventually cause mass infertility. In some versions of the theory online, the sterilization is unintentional. In others, it’s part of a mass conspiracy to depopulate the planet. The conspiracy theory has grown so widespread that even Nicki Minaj claimed that a relative’s friend in Trinidad had experienced swollen testicles and impotence due to the vaccine, leading to debunking from U.S. and Trinidadian public-health officials. Unvaccinated adherents to the theory often describe themselves as “purebloods” — a nod to the Harry Potter books — and discuss a future in which they’ll be called upon for mass breeding efforts. (In reality, it’s all nonsense: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has repeatedly debunked conspiracy theories that Covid-19 vaccines impair either male or female fertility.)
Guo has already pitched one business scheme based on unvaccinated sperm — including his own. “All the fellow fighters’ sperm and eggs will be put for auction on our Gettr between June 1 and June 6, 2023,” Guo said on a Feb. 22 livestream, where claimed to have amassed nearly 6,000 eggs and “millions” of sperm from unvaccinated donors. “It will be the most meaningful event of this year. We will auction off the best sperm and eggs, which of course include my sperm.”
Guo, his attorneys, and Gettr’s press office did not respond to requests for comment on this story. Robin Mokhtar, Gettr’s chief financial officer, said in a brief phone conversation on Wednesday afternoon that he was not aware of these semen-related conversations, or even Guo’s public mentions of the planning. “News to me,” he claimed.
Mokhtar, two of the sources say, has been one of the people at the helm of the company for weeks now, following a series of staff departures. Mokhtar denied that he was the acting executive in charge of Gettr, but declined to identify who was in charge of the company.
Mokhtar also insisted in a brief phone conversation on Wednesday that Guo was not an investor in Gettr. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s just one of our users,” he told Rolling Stone. However, in the federal indictment of Guo unsealed on Wednesday, prosecutors stated they intended to seek the forfeiture of nearly $3 million in a bank account “held in the name of ‘Gettr USA, Inc.,'” which the federal government seized in September 2022 as part of its investigation of Guo.
Jason Miller, a top adviser to Donald Trump, founded Gettr in 2021 as a right-wing alternative to moderated platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Politico reported early last month that he was departing the company to join Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
Gettr’s possible pivot to semen comes amid tough times for the platform. Many right-wing companies were racing to implant themselves at the center of the pro-Trump audience, and most of those were always destined to fall by the wayside. It appears that Gettr is unlikely to be the one. Downloads of the app have declined since September 2022, and an October 2022 Pew poll showed the platform lagged behind other conservative social media apps in name recognition, including Gab, Parler, Rumble, and Trump’s own Truth Social.
A person familiar with Gettr’s operations derisively referred to the ideas for this potential makeover as the “Covid-Unvaxxed Jizz Market” plan. The source pinned some of the blame on the recent departure of Miller and others. “Gettr isn’t a serious place anymore, particularly after Jason [Miller] and other staffers recently left. It isn’t shocking that these ideas are being thrown around,” the source tells Rolling Stone. “People who are still there want Gettr to make money, but it’s just insane brainstorming to figure out how.”
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