As state governments attempt to prohibit kids’s entry to social media and varied courts debate what free speech seems to be like within the digital period, one social media platform is making an attempt its second rebrand. The Parler app, which was shut down in April 2023 after being bought to new possession, has had a rocky historical past since launching in 2018. Earlier than its shutdown, the app was initially banned from app shops in 2021 for its alleged function in serving to manage the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol.
Now, forward of the 2024 election, the Parler app, which was bought once more on the finish of 2023, has been reinstated on Apple’s App Retailer as a part of an invite-only rollout. Although it’s not but out there to most of the people, the timing of the app’s tried rebrand raises questions for some extremism consultants.
Jon Lewis, a analysis fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington College, spoke to Yahoo Information about whether or not Parler can separate itself from its previous now that it’s making an attempt to rebrand itself. Lewis stated he doesn’t see a future through which Parler’s status will not precede it, probably making it troublesome for the app to draw a brand new person base.
“My liberal Fb dad and mom will not be dying to get onto Parler once they see it is out there within the App Retailer once more,” Lewis stated. “[Parler’s] core membership will nonetheless stay the individuals who suppose that there will probably be election interference and an election will probably be stolen this yr.”
Parler has at all times marketed itself as a social media platform that stands out from mainstream alternate options like X and Fb, particularly with regards to content material moderation — or lack thereof. However Parler’s content material insurance policies, that are what drew audiences within the first place, had been in the end its undoing after it was allegedly used to plan the storming of the Capitol. With this new rebrand, can the app escape its problematic previous?
“Parler’s aim is to supply a platform the place customers can freely specific themselves with out worry of censorship or discrimination,” a Parler spokesperson informed Yahoo Information. “Parler 3.0 is targeted on fostering constructive conversations and optimistic engagement amongst customers.”
The Parler spokesperson didn’t give Yahoo Information an actual date for when the app will probably be out there to the general public. The app isn’t again on the Google Play storefront but. Neither Apple nor Google responded to Yahoo Information’ request for remark.
Let’s return to the start. What was the aim of launching Parler in 2018?
Parler was first launched in 2018 and promoted as a “free speech” social media platform the place posts wouldn’t be moderated. Its promise of zero moderation attracted customers who had been banned from different platforms, comparable to X, previously referred to as Twitter, and Fb.
Conservative figureheads comparable to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul promoted Parler as “a platform [that] will get what free speech is all about.”
I’m proud to affix @parler_app — a platform will get what free speech is all about — and I’m excited to be part of it. Let’s converse. Let’s converse freely. And let’s finish the Silicon Valley censorship. Observe me there @tedcruz! pic.twitter.com/pzUFvhipBZ
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 25, 2020
Rebekah Mercer, an early investor within the app and daughter of hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, who was a serious donor to former President Donald Trump and Breitbart Information, stated she joined authentic Parler CEO John Matze in his mission to “present a impartial platform totally free speech” away from “the ever-increasing tyranny and hubris of our tech overlords.”
The app exploded in reputation in 2019 and 2020 as Republicans accused social media platforms like Fb of “disproportionately suppress[ing] and censor[ing] conservative views on-line.”
A Wall Avenue Journal article reported that Parler’s person base had greater than doubled to 10 million customers in lower than every week in 2020. Allegedly, one supportive tweet from conservative activist Candace Owens single-handedly inspired 40,000 new customers to enroll.
Why did Parler initially get banned from app shops?
In January 2021, days after the Capitol riot and after President Donald Trump was banned from a number of social media platforms, Parler was reportedly probably the most downloaded app from Apple’s App Retailer within the U.S.
On Jan. 9, 2021, Amazon, which hosted Parler on its Amazon Internet Companies, informed the app it could be suspending providers after receiving studies of a “regular enhance on this violent content material” throughout the platform.
Amazon was referring to the allegations that Parler had been used to assist coordinate the riot on the Capitol constructing. Within the wake of the assault, the app was now overrun with dying threats, celebrations of violence and different posts that inspired “patriots” to deliver weapons to Washington, D.C. the day earlier than President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
CNN reported on the time that the app was dominated by “accounts with swastikas as their profile photos and disgusting racist posts.” ProPublica discovered greater than 500 movies that had been uploaded to Parler in the course of the assault, some even from contained in the Capitol constructing.
Whereas the second iteration of the Parler app was reinstated on the Google Play app retailer and Apple’s App Retailer in September 2022, the app has been offline since April 2023, after it was bought from the unique homeowners by the advertising agency Starboard for an undisclosed quantity. Ye, the rapper previously referred to as Kanye West, was additionally in talks to purchase the corporate in late 2022.
Regardless of its similarities to Fact Social — Trump’s reply to being banned from Fb and X following Jan. 6 — Starboard shut down Parler after shopping for it, with one consultant saying, “No affordable particular person believes {that a} Twitter clone only for conservatives is a viable enterprise anymore.”
As an alternative, Starboard stated it would leverage Parler’s property, like its person base, to assist its different current companies.
How will issues be completely different this time round?
At the moment, the Parler app is owned by former Parler govt Elise Pierotti in addition to Ryan Rhodes and Jaco Booyens, who purchased the app for an undisclosed sum in December.
Whereas the aim is to “uphold its values of free speech and open dialogue,” a Parler spokesperson informed Yahoo Information that there’ll now be “measures for affordable content material moderation and group tips to stop misuse of the platform.”
“Sure sorts of content material are strictly prohibited on our platform, together with criminality, violence, harassment and threats,” the spokesperson informed Yahoo Information. “Any violations of those tips will probably be promptly addressed via applicable moderation measures.”
Pierotti informed NBC Information in December that Parler would have its personal servers within the U.S. to keep away from counting on Amazon Internet Companies once more.
Pierotti additionally famous that X, now owned by Elon Musk, continues to be out there in app shops regardless of that platform’s personal loosening of speech guidelines and moderation. In November 2023, a number of advertisers expressed concern over their adverts showing subsequent to pro-Nazi content material and hate speech on X.
“I’m one of many individuals who imagine that hate speech is completely different for various individuals,” Pierotti informed NBC. “I’m not an arbiter of reality.”
In response to Pierotti’s assertion to NBC, Lewis, the extremism knowledgeable, informed Yahoo Information, “This right-wing ecosystem has no concept what free speech really means.”
“They suppose that free speech means they’ve an unfettered, unmitigated proper to publish no matter they need on any platform and so they can not endure penalties from it as a result of we have now the First Modification,” Lewis stated. “None of those platforms have any obligation to permit their areas for use to threaten, to dehumanize, to unfold conspiracies. Lots of them nonetheless are as a result of most of those platforms both don’t care or need to do the naked minimal.”
Is there a spot for Parler within the present social media panorama?
“Definitely the large query from my perspective is, do you even want Parler when you may have X now?” Lewis requested. “I feel the entire collapse of Twitter as a moderated social media platform has definitely allowed it to scoop up many of the disaffected, disenchanted Parler members who had been in search of a brand new cesspool through which to swim.”
Lewis argues that the circumstances underneath which Parler was capable of develop into standard in 2020 have modified dramatically.
“[Parler] is definitely going to attempt to return to this sort of former glory,” Lewis defined, elaborating that the “former glory” is about being the go-to platform for right-wing-leaning conspiracy theorists. “[But] as we speak, [conspiracy theorists] see Twitter as the simplest and most mainstream place that can get them probably the most eyes and most attain.”
There’s additionally 4chan, an nameless message board platform with an notorious “politically incorrect” part that counts Tucker Carlson as a fan, in addition to former President Donald Trump’s Fact Social.
How the general public holds social media platforms accountable has modified since 2020, too. On March 19, a New York decide made the historic determination that households of victims of the 2022 Buffalo, N.Y., mass taking pictures must be allowed to show how social media websites may be held accountable.
The Parler consultant informed Yahoo Information it has “a variety of new options” that will probably be rolled out to “differentiate us from different platforms within the coming yr.” If and the way the brand new Parler plans to stop its customers from selling hateful or violent content material, nonetheless, stays to be seen.