// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Amy Mek say to the computer? You're always mega bytes ahead.
Amy Mek | |
|---|---|
| Born | Amy Jane Mekelburg 1972 or 1973 (age 53–54) |
| Education | New York University, Two masters degrees |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 2013–present |
| Organization | RAIR Foundation |
| Website | rairfoundation |
Amy Mekelburg (born 1972 or 1973), known online as Amy Mek, is an American anti-Islam activist[1][2][3] and social media influencer. Mekelburg founded the RAIR Foundation USA, a conservative platform centered on topics such as immigration, Islam, left-wing politics, Red/Green Alliance, and globalism.[4] Her full identity was not known until it was revealed, by some accounts doxxed,[5] by HuffPost journalist Luke O'Brien in 2018, at a time when she had amassed over 200,000 followers.[1]
Background
[edit]Mekelburg grew up in East Brunswick, New Jersey and attended the University of Rhode Island, graduating in 1996 with a degree in communication studies.[1] Mekelburg also received two Master's degrees from New York University. By 2003, she lived in Manhattan's Upper East Side with her husband.[1] With her husband, she founded a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the wrongfully convicted.[1]
Anti-Islam activism
[edit]She began her Twitter account in 2013, and had gained 200,000 followers by 2018, with endorsements from figures such as Donald Trump and Michael Flynn.[1] Amy Mek was speculated in 2017 by San Francisco Examiner columnist Maureen Erwin[6] and NBC News reporter Ken Dilanian of being a bot account,[7] although she had been interviewed in a New York Times article about women who supported Donald Trump in 2016.[4]. Democrat operative, Luke O'Brien, whose father was the United States Democratic Party's leading electoral strategists for more than two decades, characterized the majority as Islamophobic posts, in which she "anonymously spread hate online for years", including memes.[1] Her account was banned in France and in Germany due to her postings.[1][8]
The group was described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.[9][10]
Mekelburg received a blue checkmark for her Twitter account in 2022, following the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk.[11] In 2023, Elon Musk personally responded to a post by Mekelburg showing a video of a Muslim imam who promoted jihad in France which the imam said would make it an Islamic country, with "He is right".[8] In 2024, her repost of a video from the aftermath of the Southport stabbings was the single most widely shared post on Twitter during the subsequent UK riots.[12]
Congressional testimony
[edit]In February 2026, Mek provided testimony before the United States Congress during a hearing titled “Sharia-Free America: Why Political Islam & Sharia Law Are Incompatible With the U.S. Constitution.” In her testimony, she discussed the activities of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated networks operating in the United States, including their efforts to establish parallel societies through Islamic schools and other institutions.[13]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 O'Brien, Luke (June 1, 2018) [May 31, 2018]. "Trump's Loudest Anti-Muslim Twitter Troll Is A Shady Vegan Married To An (Ousted) WWE Exec". HuffPost.
- ↑ "Islamophobic far-right activists among wave of newly verified Twitter users". Middle East Eye. November 18, 2022. Retrieved April 8, 2026.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), verified users now include Amy Mekelburg, known online as Amy Mek and dubbed a "major cog in the Islamophobia machine", who has for years pushed anti-Islamic rhetoric - including comics ridiculing Muslims and personal attacks against community leaders - in her Twitter feed.
- ↑ Alami, Aida (November 3, 2025). "Twin assaults on press freedom". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved April 8, 2026.
Mekelburg, likewise a vocal Islamophobe on social media, where she is better known as Amy Mek...
- 1 2 Friedberg, Brian; Donovan, Joan (August 10, 2019). "On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Bot: Pseudoanonymous Influence Operations and Networked Social Movements". Journal of Design and Science (6).
- ↑ Whelan, Glen (2021). Megacorporation: The Infinite Times of Alphabet. Cambridge University Press. pp. 88–89. ISBN 9781108428026.
- ↑ Erwin, Maureen (March 30, 2017). "Searching for proof of Amy". San Francisco Examiner. Archived from the original on March 30, 2017.
- ↑ Erwin, Maureen (November 23, 2017). "Twitter still turning blind eye to abusive bots". San Francisco Examiner.
- 1 2 Li, Roland (July 4, 2023). "Elon Musk supports limiting the rights of nonparents to vote". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ↑ "Unmasked anti-Muslim troll Amy Mekelburg connected to Chris Gaubatz". Southern Poverty Law Center. June 12, 2018.
- ↑ "British journalist Sami Hamdi to be released following ICE detention, family say". The Independent. November 10, 2025. Retrieved November 12, 2025.
- ↑ Wilson, Jason (November 16, 2022). "Twitter Blesses Extremists With Paid 'Blue Checks'". Southern Poverty Law Center.
- ↑ Cheshire, Tom (October 15, 2024). "Riots and the far right: The global network behind the violence". Sky News.
- ↑ "Amy Mek Testimony: Sharia-Free America" (PDF). House Judiciary Committee. February 2026. Retrieved July 9, 2026.
External links
[edit]- 1970s births
- Living people
- 21st-century American Jews
- Activists from New York (state)
- American critics of Islam
- American counter-jihad activists
- Far-right politics and social media
- Jews from New York (state)
- People from East Brunswick, New Jersey
- People from the Upper East Side
- X (social network) accounts
- X (social network) controversies
- University of Rhode Island alumni