Draft:Seth Dillon

Seth Dillon (born Seth Michael Dillon; 5 January 1983) is an American marketer. He bought conservative satire site The Babylon Bee in 2018.

Life and career

Dillon was born in Washington, D.C. His family moved frequently, as his father was an evangelical pastor. He has an older sibling. His younger brother, Dan, runs Not the Bee, a companion site that publishes commentary and hosts a social media platform.

Dillon studied business management at Palm Beach Atlantic University from 2000 to 2004. In 2020, after being scheduled to speak at the Christian school's DeSantis Family Chapel, Dillon's speech was moved to another building after students protested his previous characterization of Black Lives Matter as a terrorist organization. Before buying The Babylon Bee, Dillon worked in e-commerce, selling water bottles, phone cases, and towels online. He and his brother own a venture capital limited liability company that shares an address with The Babylon Bee in Jupiter, Florida.

The Babylon Bee

Dillon is the CEO and majority owner of The Babylon Bee. As of 2020, at least 10 employees of the site are fellow Palm Beach Atlantic alumni. Commenting on criticism that site content moved away from good-natured takes on evangelical culture to pointed political headlines, Dillon told Religion News Service, "We still do lots of church jokes — they just don’t go as viral as the other stuff." He defended the site's move to targeting daily news stories and politicians instead of churchgoers, citing Donald Trump as an example of "an 'outrageous personality' who says outrageous things that deserve to be mocked," according to RNS. Dillon said of the site's fans, "We don’t want our audience to feel bad about themselves, like we’re bullying them." He has, however, said that mocking bad ideas is "a moral imperative" and wrote, "You can’t reason with people who’ve abandoned rationality on purpose. But you can—and, indeed, you must—ridicule their bad ideas." Dillon said The Babylon Bee highlights it social media conflicts in marketing to subscribers.

Twitter/X suspension, relationship with Elon Musk

After The Babylon Bee was suspended from Twitter for misgendering Rachel Levine in March of 2022, Elon Musk's ex-wife Talulah Jane Riley reportedly sent the billionaire a text commenting on the suspension. Riley suggested that Musk buy Twitter, then delete the site or "make it radically free-speech." Dillon said Musk later called to confirm the suspension, saying he "might need to buy Twitter." Dillon claims a Washington Post article said that on Musk's first day as CEO of Twitter, he "walked in the office and issued an urgent directive: bringing back the Babylon Bee." While speaking at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in December 2023, Dillon said he gave Musk an IOU for $44 million after Musk reinstated the account. At a March 28, 2023, congressional hearing, Dillon claimed that social media companies like Not the Bee do not have a First Amendment right to censor users, arguing that censorship is conduct, rather than a form of free speech.

In April 2023, Dillon said that The Babylon Bee, Tim Pool, and Minds had together sued California Attorney General Rob Bonta to block enforcement of AB 587, a California law that requires social media companies to send the text of their latest terms of service to California's attorney general twice yearly. Dillon said AB 587 violates the First Amendment. In a similar suit brought by X Corp against Bonta, Judge William Shubb ruled the law does not violate the First Amendment.

In November 2023, large companies including Apple, Disney, IBM, NBCUniversal, and Sony suspended advertising on Twitter/X following Musk's expression of support of the antisemitic White Replacement conspiracy theory, as well as a report from Media Matters for America demonstrating that these companies' Twitter ads were shown next to content promoting Adolph Hitler and Nazi ideology. In response, Dillon pledged $250,000 in advertisements for The Babylon Bee on the platform. Conservative figures including Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Gavin McInnes, and Elijah Schaffer later also promised to spend varying amounts on Twitter ads.

Libs of TikTok

In a 2022 Substack post following the revelation that Chaya Raichik operates the far-right anti-LGBT social media accounts with the handle Libs of TikTok, Dillon wrote, "I want them to know that she won't be canceled from her job because this is her job now. I've worked out a deal with her that will turn her heroic, high-risk work into a career." Libs of Tik Tok LLC and The Babylon Bee are headquarted in the same Jupiter, Florida office. Dillon hung up on a Palm Beach Post reporter who called to ask for his strategy for handling potential defamation lawsuits.

Relationship with Ron DeSantis

Dillon donated $40,000 to a political action committee in support of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' re-election campaign in November 2022. The following March, he spoke at a DeSantis press conference promoting the Republican governor's "Digital Bill of Rights."

Feud with Laura Loomer

In February 2023, white nationalist media personality Laura Loomer contacted Dillon after noticing a $21,500 payment to The Babylon Bee from Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC during the Florida governor's race. Among texts insisting that the relationship was not related to DeSantis' presidential campaign, Dillon wrote to Loomer, "“You could consider us speech writing consultants. We help him find funny angles on Democrats. We don’t attack Trump for him. That’s silly and false. They have never suggested that we write anything about Trump.” Dillon has also claimed that the payment was for email list rentals, the practice of allowing another party one-time use of a list of email addresses for marketing. After Loomer reportedly told Trump about the payment at a private dinner, Trump called The Babylon Bee a "non-entity" on Truth Social, following with, "You don’t spend that much money on The Babylon Bee if you’re running for Governor, in fact, you don’t spend money on The Babylon Bee if you’re running for anything!"

Public Firing of Gavin Wax

Dillon fired The Babylon Bee's vice president of marketing Gavin Wax publicly following an online feud between Wax and Christina Pushaw, the rapid response director for DeSantis' 2024 presidential campaign. On May 26, 2023, Wax tweeted, "Hey @ChristinaPushaw what’s your fucking problem?" after accusing Pushaw of liking a tweet accusing Wax of fraudulent activity. After Dillon replied to him, "Tweeting like this with the Bee in your bio doesn't work for me," Way retweeted Dillon's reply with the comment, "Being accused of things that are false (and criminal) doesn’t work for me." Dillon replied, "You can take the Bee out of your bio now." In a Twitter Spaces conversation, Dillon said he fired Wax over "vile and vulgar language." Wax has accused Dillon of firing him because of his support of Trump of DeSantis as the Republican presidential candidate, telling The Rolling Stone after the spat, "“A lot of Trump supporters have serious questions about the Bee and their leadership’s political leanings. Trump and MAGA diehard supporters were there for the Bee when they were banned on Twitter. Over the last several months many people have become increasingly dismayed. A satire site is now attempting to turn itself into a political outlet.”

Other Controversies

Disinvitation from speaking at Palm Beach Atlantic University

Dillon's alma mater, Palm Beach Atlantic University, asked him to speak at its DeSantis Family Chapel on September 30, 2020. Students and other community members protested to university administration, citing a tweet from Dillon calling Black Lives Matter "a terrorist organization" and The Babylon Bee's anti-LGBTQ content as reasons Dillon should not be allowed to speak in a "sacred space." The school's director of alumni relations notified Dillon the day before his scheduled speech that he would no longer be allowed to speak in the chapel, moving the event to the university library. Quoting a tweet from a student expressing disappointment at the speech having been moved, Dillon accused the protestors of slander, naming and tagging a university staff member, whose account is now protected.

Argument with Joe Rogan

Dillon was a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience on August 16, 2022. On the topic of abortion, Rogan said victims of sexual assault should not be forced to carry a baby to term, pointing out that many such victims are minors. Dillon replied that some individuals who were conceived as a result of a sexual assault grow up to oppose abortion. Rogan responded, "You don’t have a right to tell a 14-year-old girl, she has to carry a rapist’s baby. ... Like, you don’t have the right to tell my 14-year-old daughter, she has to carry her rapist’s baby. You understand that?" When Rogan pushed for Dillon to say whether he agrees that sexual assault victims should not be forced to give birth, Dillon kept repeating his statement that he knows individuals conceived during sexual assault who are antiabortion.

Mocking underage rape victim online

On August 16, 2023, Dillon retweeted the New York Post headline "Mississippi girl, 13, gives birth after being raped, unable to get an abortion" with the comment "She could always dress him in a 'should have been aborted' onesie so no one ever mistakenly thinks he's wanted." Dillon has frequently advocated against backing down amid pushback, writing "I’ve long held that when you censor yourself, you’re doing the tyrant’s work for him" regarding The Babylon Bee's 2022 Twitter suspension and telling World News Group, " the truth will only prevail if it’s fiercely and unapologetically defended. When I said Christian institutions need a backbone, I meant that they need to stop caring about the mob. It’s cowardly and shameful to care as much as they sometimes do." Following backlash to his retweet mocking the 13-year-old sexual assault survivor, Dillon removed the post.

Criticism continued as Twitter/X users shared screenshots of Dillon's deleted post making fun of a child who had been assaulted and then forced to give birth. On August 17, a Twitter/X user called Qanon Latifah, whose account has since been suspended, retweeted the New York Post headline "Missing 12-year-old girl believed to be staying with ‘much older’ man" with the comment "Open and shut case @FBI the man who has her under his control is @SethDillon." Dillon posted a screenshot of the tweet saying, "Is this legal?," replying to himself, "I'm blocked so I can't report it." Journalist Matt Binder then posted a tweet containing a screenshot of the two deleted posts next to a screenshot of a July 16 post from Dillon reading, "'You have free speech, but you can't be wrong. The line must be drawn at misinformation.' This is nonsense. If free speech is anything, it's the right to be wrong." On August 18, Dillon tweeted about the backlash, "I must have struck a nerve. And now they're too worked up to realize the more they troll me, the more money I make."

David Horowitz Freedom Center speech

On October 27, 2023, Dillon spoke about The Babylon Bee's Twitter suspension at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled as an anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim hate group. In the speech, Dillon said, "It's good that you're finished eating" before showing a photo of U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, a transgender woman. In his speech, Dillon asked:

"Is Rachel Levine really a marginalized and oppressed person? Think about this for a second: A high-ranking, male government official. Dylan Mulvaney—oppressed? Marginalized? Well, sponsored by every major corporation and standing on a red carpet with flashes going off everywhere? Is Dylan Mulvaney marginalized and oppressed? What do those words mean if they apply to someone like Dylan Mulvaney? And by the way, if you make a joke about these people, you can lose your livelihood or your voice in the public square. They have the privilege of that kind of protection? I don't have that kind of protection! I don't have the power to get you suspended from Twitter for making a joke at my expense! Who has the power in our culture, in our society? Isn't it the opposite of who they say it is? I think the people who are supposedly the most marginalized and oppressed are the most powerful people in our culture. They have both the will and the power to silence anyone who so much as makes a joke at their expense. That's crazy scary power. That's tyrant power. It's oppressive. So I think when we make jokes like the one we made about Rachel Levine, we're punching up. If anything, we're punching back."

Dillon also characterized gender-affirming care as "sterilization and castration and mutilation." During the question-and-answer portion, an audience member called for The Babylon Bee's critics to "go to a re-education camp." After the David Horowitz Freedom Center posted a video of the speech to Vimeo, the platform banned the organization's account for hate speech.

Personal Life

Dillon lives in Juno Beach, Florida, with his wife, Tara Lynn, and their two sons. He is an Ashkenazi Jew. He told Fox News that his children attend Christian school, accusing public schools of promoting "woke" ideology. "Leftists want you to think trans identification is on the rise among youth because our culture is more accepting than ever, but that's a disgraceful lie," he said. "The confusion isn't pre-existing in kids' minds. It's being planted there." After a jury found Kenosha, Wisconsin, shooter Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty of charges including homicide, Dillon called Rittenhouse "a hero" and wrote, "Rittenhouse wasn't putting himself at risk for a thrill, but for a moral purpose. His family's community had been handed over to a violent mob by the very people who had a duty to protect it. Rittenhouse (among others) stepped up to do their job for them."

Dillon does not have a Wikipedia page.