Palmer Luckey vanishes from Reddit after Trump 'shitposting'
The Oculus Rift creator appears to have deleted the Reddit account used to bolster and fund a pro-Trump group
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey has deleted his Reddit account after admitting he helped fund a pro-Trump 'shitposting' movement on Reddit.
Details emerged this morning, courtesy of The Daily Beast, that 24-year old Luckey helped found and financially back Nimble America, a pro-Donald Trump group that emerged on the /r/The_Donald subreddit. The group is centred on 'shitposting' negative messaging about Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
The alt-right group, which was revealed last week and describes itself as a "social welfare 501(c)4 non-profit" organisation, has said its tactics have "proven that shitposting is powerful and meme magic is real". Its fundraising drives, almost entirely driven through Reddit, have already resulted in anti-Clinton billboards.
The Oculus founder, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes to be around $700 million (£535m), posted on the subreddit under the pseudonym 'NimbleRichMan'. Following reports of his support for Donald Trump Luckey has apparently deleted his Reddit account.
Many of his posts have been archived and remain available to read, though dates and posting times may appear inaccurate as a result.
Luckey insisted to The Daily Beast he is only a financier of Nimble America, but was - under his pseudonym - also listed as vice president of the organisation. Nimble America has since removed any mention of Luckey from its website.
It's unclear how much money Luckey gave to Nimble America, though in his opening post, he said "I have already donated significant funds to Nimble America, and will continue to do so."
Luckey also promised to match others' donations, though perhaps not in the manner that's usually done. Rather than directly matching dollar for dollar, he seems to promise to not indulge in his own riches quite so much instead of actually donating more to Nimble America - the carbon offset equivalent of donations. He wrote, "donate ten dollars and I will match you by flying my jet a minute less. Donate a hundred and I will match you by skipping a glass of scotch. Donate a thousand and I will match by putting off the tire change on my car. Am I bragging? Will people be offended? Yes, but those people already hate Donald. They cannot stand to see successful people who are proud of their success."
Luckey's involvement and tacit endorsement of Trump has not gone down well. Some virtual reality developers have responded by cancelling development of their games for Oculus Rift, and have called for Luckey's resignation or dismissal.
In addition to billboards, Nimble America has also bought Facebook ads, according to a financial statement on its site. WIRED contacted Facebook to ask if this represented a conflict of interest given Luckey's involvement and Facebook's $2 billion acquisition of Oculus, but had not received a reply at the time of publication. Oculus had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.