The Other 98% (also known as the Other 98% Lab) is a nonprofit left-of-center advocacy group that runs “The Other 98%” Facebook page. 1 The Other 98% uses self-described “meme warfare” to spread the group’s far-left positions on the economy and healthcare, including support for the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and wealth redistribution. 2 According to reporting done by Buzzfeed News, out of all the “hyper-partisan” Facebook pages analyzed, the Other 98% page had one of highest rates of posting “No Factual Content.” 3
The Other 98% is part of the Action Network, an online left-of-center mobilization tool that has been used to organize the Women’s March, environmentalist protests against the Keystone XL pipeline, and the March for Our Lives events supporting gun control. 4
Founding and History
The Other 98% was founded by left-of-center activists John Sellers and Andrew Boyd in 2010 as a direct response to the conservative Tea Party movement. Initially founded as “The Other 95%,” the group preceded the left-wing Occupy Wall Street movement and its “We are the 99%” slogan by over a year. 5
The Other 98%’s Facebook page was created on April 3, 2010. In its early days, the Other 98%’s Facebook page was used to organize activist demonstrations, many of which were based around “flash mobs” and musical performances. In the wake of 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, the group organized a flash mob performance in a Minnesota Target store, funded by the left-of-center MoveOn Civic Action. 6
As the Other 98% Facebook page began to go viral for its memes, the group moved away from organizing demonstrations. Its last documented protest, which sent a marching band to Citibank’s New York City headquarters, took place on February 3, 2015. 7 Since then, the Other 98% has focused its efforts on internet advocacy, sharing memes on its Facebook page to disseminate far-left political ideology.
Present Activities
As of May 2021, the Other 98% Facebook page has over 6.7 million likes and 6.6 million followers, making it one of the most popular political pages on Facebook. 1 Its page banner features headshots of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and Ivanka Trump, with their faces covered by the slogan, “Tax the Rich.” 1
The Other 98%’s website, which encourages visitors to donate and shares articles written by the group, appears to be mostly inactive. Its last published article, an advertisement for a left-of-center “dramatic comedy web series,” was posted on September 23, 2019. 8
Finances
The Other 98%’s 2019 tax filings show total revenues of $167,765 and total expenses of $142,175. 9 The group’s financial filings are indicative of an overall downward trend in revenues since 2016; in 2016, The Other 98% had total revenues of $505,243, with a total decrease of $337,478 over the following three years.
Leadership
The executive director of The Other 98% is John Sellers. He was a principal at the now-defunct, left-of-center Agit-Pop Communications firm and is the president of the Ruckus Society, a radical-left activism organization. 10 Sellers began his activism with the radical environmentalist organization Greenpeace, leading its Washington, D.C. office. In 1992, Sellers scaled Chicago’s Willis Tower (then known as the Sears Tower) as part of a Greenpeace demonstration against nuclear power. 6
References
- “The Other 98% Facebook Page.” Facebook. Accessed May 20, 2021. https://www.facebook.com/TheOther98/.
- Herrman, John. “Inside Facebook’s (Totally Insane, Unintentionally Gigantic, Hyperpartisan) Political-Media Machine.” The New York Times. The New York Times, August 24, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/magazine/inside-facebooks-totally-insane-unintentionally-gigantic-hyperpartisan-political-media-machine.html. ; “About The Other 98%.” Other98. Accessed May 20, 2021. https://other98.com/mission/.
- Silverman, Craig. “Hyperpartisan Facebook Pages Are Publishing False And Misleading Information At An Alarming Rate.” BuzzFeed News. BuzzFeed News, October 20, 2016. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/partisan-fb-pages-analysis.
- Action Network. “Other98.” The Action Network. Accessed May 20, 2021. https://actionnetwork.org/groups/revoke-wall-streets-license-to-steal.
- “Putting Class Back in Class Warfare.” Inequality.org, May 30, 2017. https://inequality.org/research/putting-class-class-warfare/. ; Voigt, Ken. “Beyond Wall Street: ‘Occupy’ protests go global.” CNN. October 7, 2011. Accessed March 30, 2018. https://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/07/business/wall-street-protest-globa
- “Putting Class Back in Class Warfare.” Inequality.org, May 30, 2017. https://inequality.org/research/putting-class-class-warfare/.
- other98. “Memo to Big Banks: Don’t Piss off Marching Bands.” YouTube. YouTube, February 3, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHdYcFdC3po.
- Dawson, Rosario. “Rosario Dawson on ‘Flipping the Script for Immigrant Rights’.” Other98, September 23, 2019. https://other98.com/rosario-dawson-on-flipping-the-script-for-immigrant-rights/.
- “Other 98 Percent Lab, Full Filing – Nonprofit Explorer.” ProPublica. Accessed May 20, 2021. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/463450243/202002339349200040/full.
- “Our Team.” Other98. Accessed May 20, 2021. https://other98.com/mission/the-team/.