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Tag: parler

  • Parler, shuttered for 8 months, plans relaunch ahead of 2024 election early next year

    Parler, shuttered for 8 months, plans relaunch ahead of 2024 election early next year

    The social media platform Parler, which caters to right-wing voices and was temporarily booted offline following the Jan. 6 insurrection, is relaunching ahead of next year’s presidential elections.

    The new owners of the company announced this week the platform is preparing for a “powerful resurgence” that emphasizes “a return to its roots as a robust marketplace of ideas.”

    Parler has been offline since April, when it was purchased by the digital media conglomerate Starboard for an undisclosed sum. Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, had also offered to buy the company beforehand, but the agreement collapsed late last year.

    The company’s new owner is a limited liability corporation known as PDS Partners.

    Elise Pierotti, who is returning as the platform’s chief marketing officer, said PDS consists of herself, Parler’s new CEO Ryan Rhodes and others who are choosing to remain anonymous. Jaco Booyens, an anti-sex trafficking activist, will serve as the chief strategy officer.

    Pierotti did not disclose the terms of the deal. She said it was finalized last week and expects the platform to relaunch in the first quarter of next year.

    Parler had always had a small user base even among right-wing and libertarian-focused apps that marketed themselves as havens for free speech.

    The platform struggled to return online after Amazon stripped it of web-hosting service in early 2021 over its unwillingness to remove posts inciting violence. Pierotti said Parler will no longer be using Amazon’s cloud service AWS. Instead, she said it will rely on other technology including a “hyper-scaled private cloud.”

    “As a new company we prefer to not be associated with those events and have taken the steps to combat those issues” with moderation services, she said.

    Google and Apple had also removed Parler’s app from their online stores after the insurrection. They later allowed it to return.

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    The Associated Press

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  • Right-leaning social network Parler temporarily shuttered by new owner immediately after acquisition

    Right-leaning social network Parler temporarily shuttered by new owner immediately after acquisition

    The digital media conglomerate Starboard said Friday it purchased the conservative social media site Parler and will temporarily take down the app as it undergoes a “strategic assessment.”

    “No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more,” Starboard said in a news release Friday announcing the acquisition.

    The deal came months after another acquisition agreement with rapper Kanye West, legally known as Ye, collapsed in November.

    The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed by either company. Parler said the deal was concluded on April 7.

    Parler caters to right-wing, far right and libertarian voices and fashions itself as a platform with fewer rules in support of free speech. It was briefly booted off some platforms in 2021 due to its connections to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and its user base remains small.

    Starboard, formerly known as Olympic Media, was founded in 2018 and owns other conservative-leaning news sites. In a news release, Parler called it “the perfect home” for its brand and loyal users.

    “The team at Parler has built an exceptional audience and we look forward to integrating that audience across all of our existing platforms.” Starboard CEO Ryan Coyne said in a statement.

    Parler also said its CEO George Farmer will step down from his role. He will be replaced by Igor Shalkevich, the company’s chief development officer.


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  • Parler says Kanye West is no longer buying the social network

    Parler says Kanye West is no longer buying the social network

    Rapper Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, will no longer buy social media website and Twitter alternative Parler, marking the artist’s latest business partnership to dissolve in the wake of his anti-semitic comments.

    The proposed deal was called off “in the interest of both parties” in mid-November, according to a Thursday tweet from Parler parent company Parlement Technologies. Plans for the purchase were first announced in October. 

    Parler, which was founded in 2018, drew a surge of users following the 2020 presidential election, fashioning itself as a forum for conservative thought and alternative to other social media sites. When West announced the deal in October, he said that Parler was important “to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves.”

    “The company has mutually agreed with Ye to terminate the intent of sale of Parler,” the company said in a Thursday tweet.

    “Parler will continue to pursue future opportunities for growth and the evolution of the platform for our vibrant community,” the company added. 

    Since the acquisition was announced in October, Ye has posted a series of antisemitic remarks on social media for which he has been criticized and dropped by corporate partners, including Adidas.

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  • Kanye West is no longer acquiring Parler, company says | CNN Business

    Kanye West is no longer acquiring Parler, company says | CNN Business


    Washington
    CNN Business
     — 

    The rapper formerly known as Kanye West will no longer be acquiring Parler, the alternative social media platform favored by conservatives including some far-right extremists, the company announced on Thursday. West has legally changed his name to Ye.

    The decision to abandon the deal was mutual, Parler tweeted.

    In a statement, Parler’s parent, Parlement Technologies, said it “has mutually agreed with Ye to terminate the intent of sale of Parler. This decision was made in the interest of both parties in mid-November. Parler will continue to pursue future opportunities for growth and the evolution of the platform for our vibrant community.”

    CNN has reached out to a representative for Ye for comment.

    Ye’s ongoing business difficulties were a factor in the mutual decision, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.

    In recent weeks, Ye has seen a number of lucrative business deals evaporate over his antisemitic remarks. In October, sportswear maker Adidas said it had ended its partnership with Ye. Other partnerships, including with Gap and Balenciaga, have also ended. And earlier this week, Ye claimed on a right-wing podcast that the Internal Revenue Service has frozen several of his accounts over an unpaid tax bill worth $50 million.

    Ye’s intent to purchase Parler was first announced in October.

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  • Kanye West’s biggest challenge with owning Parler may come from Elon Musk | CNN Business

    Kanye West’s biggest challenge with owning Parler may come from Elon Musk | CNN Business


    New York
    CNN Business
     — 

    One week ago, Kanye West was temporarily suspended from Twitter for posting antisemitic tweets. Now, the rapper has agreed to acquire Parler, an alternative social platform popular with conservatives, to prevent ever having “to fear being removed from social media again.”

    West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, is just the latest controversial figure to bet on a nascent, alternative set of social media platforms favored by conservatives and members of the far-right who profess to feel outrage over content moderation on more mainstream services.

    After being banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6 insurrection, former President Donald Trump backed Truth Social, an alternative to Twitter. In a slide deck, Trump’s digital media company touted the ambitious possibility of creating not just alternatives to the major social media platforms but also to cloud computing products like Amazon Web Services and payment service Stripe.

    Separately, Peter Thiel, an influential venture capitalist and Republican donor, invested in Rumble, a conservative alternative to YouTube. Other services, including Gab and Gettr, are also part of what Ben Decker, CEO of digital threat analysis company Memetica, calls an “alt social media ecosystem,” fueled by “the deplatforming of high-profile conservative” figures from other larger platforms in recent years.

    There are a range of potential reasons why West — an erratic figure known for chaotic business dealings — may have wanted to acquire Parler, a platform that’s been home to election denialism, antisemitism and adherents to the conspiracy theory QAnon. He was likely frustrated with his antisemitic comments being removed from Twitter

    (TWTR)     and Instagram, and for being permanently suspended from the latter. West is also friends with conservative political commentator Candace Owens, who has reportedly encouraged the rapper’s political involvement and whose husband is Parler’s CEO.

    In a statement included with the Parler announcement on Monday, West alluded to the need for a different, safe space for conservatives, a camp with whom he identifies. “In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” he said. West also discussed his planned Parler takeover with Trump, a source familiar with the conversation told CNN Monday, although it was unclear if the two spoke before or after the news of the rapper’s acquisition was made public.

    But to the extent he is serious about the acquisition, which remains very much unclear, West faces an uncertain path forward that mirrors the challenges for other services promising unfettered “free speech.”

    For starters, the audience for these alternative platforms remains far smaller than the mainstream services they are competing with. Even if all 40,000 of Parler’s estimated daily active users followed West on the platform, his audience would pale in comparison to the 31.4 million followers he has on Twitter, not to mention Twitter’s more than 200 million daily active users.

    And despite professing to provide an unrestricted home for fringe content, some services, including Parler, have had to make concessions on content moderation to be allowed on the major app stores. Apple said last year that it had approved Parler’s return to the iOS app store following improvements the company made to better detect and moderate hate speech and incitement, and Google did the same last month. But even with app store approvals, large marketers tend to shy away from running ads alongside content that even whiffs of controversy.

    Perhaps the biggest wild card of all comes from West’s friend and fellow erratic rich guy, Elon Musk. The billionaire Tesla CEO appears closer than ever to taking over an already established platform, Twitter, with plans to cut back on its content restrictions. (Following the Parler announcement, Musk tweeted, and later deleted, “fun times ahead!” along with a meme showing the two men’s smiling faces superimposed over a cartoon.)

    Various regulations and business interests may keep Musk from fully committing to letting anything stay on Twitter, in the same way it has for Parler and others. But it might not take much to get right-leaning users, including influential figures, to return to Twitter. Musk has said he would restore Trump’s account on the platform; and while the former president has said he will stick to Truth Social, it’s hard to imagine he wouldn’t at least be tempted to return to Twitter’s much larger megaphone.

    Shares of the investment vehicle set to take Trump’s Truth Social public slid when Musk first announced his plan to buy Twitter, and fell again earlier this month when Musk revived his proposal to buy it. Likewise, Rumble, which only recently went public via a similar path, saw its stock decline recently when Musk said the deal was back on.

    Many of the right-leaning figures who have championed alternative platforms have cheered Musk’s plan to take over Twitter, a sign that they might abandon their dedication to a right-leaning social media ecosystem if a more mainstream platform was willing to welcome them back. Radio personality Joe Rogan — who previously discussed a move to Gettr — said in a text message to Musk in April, “I REALLY hope you get Twitter. If you do, we should throw one hell of a party.”

    Social platforms are attractive in large part because they enable conversations and connections between lots of different kinds of people. With alternative conservative platforms, many users may be discouraged by the echo chamber. “If you go to these platforms, there is one conversation happening,” said Darren Linvill, a Clemson University professor who studies disinformation and inauthentic behavior on social media. Conservative users uninterested in politics may also avoid the alternative platforms because of other objectionable content they host, according to experts who study the space.

    Putting the political discourse aside, many such platforms also suffer from technical issues and poor user interfaces. Unlike their mainstream rivals, these newer services lack sufficient resources to fix those issues. That could only make it harder to compete with a Musk-owned Twitter.

    “Elon Musk could buy Twitter and say, ‘Trump, you’re back, Kanye, you’re back,’ and then Kanye is stuck owning a relatively defunct, somewhat irrelevant platform,” said Decker. “The question is going to come down to how serious Elon Musk is about any of this.”

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  • Opinion: The chilling problem with Kanye West’s definition of ‘free speech’ | CNN

    Opinion: The chilling problem with Kanye West’s definition of ‘free speech’ | CNN

    Editor’s Note: Kara Alaimo, an associate professor in the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University, writes about issues affecting women and social media. She was spokeswoman for international affairs in the Treasury Department during the Obama administration. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.



    CNN
     — 

    The conservative social media company Parler announced on Monday that it is being purchased by Kanye West, who was temporarily suspended from Twitter this month for an antisemitic tweet. A statement from Parler’s parent company announcing the deal described West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, as having taken “a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space” where “he will never have to fear being removed from social media again.”

    In a release by Parler, West said that “in a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves.”

    This development means several social media companies could soon be left in the hands of mercurial, mega-rich men who have pledged to promote “free speech,” including the kind of extreme views that got West temporarily booted from Twitter. Elon Musk is currently in the process of buying Twitter, though Twitter said in a recent court filing that federal authorities (it was not clear which ones) are investigating Musk (while Musk’s attorney said this filing was designed to distract from Twitter’s own legal issues).

    For his part, Musk has said Twitter should be “an inclusive arena for free speech.” And former President Donald Trump, who was thrown off Twitter and Facebook in January 2021, founded the company that created Truth Social, which describes itself as a “free speech haven.”

    If West and Musk go through with their deals, these three social media platforms are likely to serve as ecosystems for conservative thought. This will likely make the views of those who remain on them more extreme — which could have a radical effect on our politics. That’s because when people who think similarly come together, they reaffirm and heighten one another’s initial beliefs.

    While men such as West, Musk and Trump claim to promote free speech by not favoring the moderation of problematic content, here’s what lack of moderation really does: It drives away the people victimized by abusive content such as West’s tweet.

    A 2020 study of women in 51 countries by The Economist Intelligence Unit found that 38% have been victims of online violence, from stalking to doxxing to violent threats. As Amnesty International and others have found, women of color are most affected. Antisemitic content is also rampant online. A 2021 report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that a sample of 714 anti-Jewish posts on five social networks had been viewed 7.3 million times.

    When women become victims of online hate, they often “shut down their blogs, avoid websites they formerly frequented, take down social networking profiles, (and) refrain from engaging in online political commentary,” according to University of Miami law professor Mary Anne Franks.

    In practice, what these so-called free speech policies really boil down to is an ugly form of censorship that scares away the voices of people who are attacked by users of these platforms.

    West has already described Parler as a place where conservative views can flourish, and nonconservatives are unlikely to flock to Truth Social, given its association with Trump. If women, people of color and others start fleeing Twitter, that could leave it as a platform for conservatives as well. This would likely make the views of those who remain even more zealous.

    “When like-minded people get together, they often end up thinking a more extreme version of what they thought before they started to talk to one another,” Harvard University law professor Cass Sunstein writes in “On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, and What Can Be Done.” Sunstein says this happens because their exchanges heighten their preexisting beliefs and make them more confident.

    So, when conservatives get together on social media, we can expect them to become more far right. And just as Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talk-show hosts radically altered the political landscape in the 1990s in ways that laid the groundwork for Trump’s presidency, the far-right views nurtured on these social networks could have a huge impact on our country’s politics. It isn’t hard to imagine that the people who commune on these sites could band together to support and elect political candidates who share their worldviews.

    We can also expect these male owners to use their platforms to amplify their own views — even when they’re sexist, misogynistic, racist or otherwise hateful.

    If West comes to own Parler and Musk takes the reins of Twitter, an already-extant conservative ecosystem will be supercharged on social media. These men’s “free speech” policies are likely to drive away people victimized by hate online. Those who remain in these conservative spaces will become even more extreme as a result of their interactions, which could cultivate a dangerous far-right ideology that has far-reaching effects on our politics.

    Just think about the way these owners already post, with Musk recently suggesting China control Taiwan and Russia keep part of Ukraine and West releasing a music video showing a doppelgänger of ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s then-boyfriend, Pete Davidson, being kidnapped and buried. If this is a glimpse of what social networks will look like in the future, we should all be very scared.

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  • Kanye West to acquire conservative social media platform Parler | CNN Business

    Kanye West to acquire conservative social media platform Parler | CNN Business



    CNN Business
     — 

    Kanye West is acquiring Parler, the alternative social media platform favored by many conservatives.

    Parler’s parent company announced the deal on Monday morning, saying West had made “a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again.”

    The acquisition comes after West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, had his account temporarily locked by Twitter this month over an antisemitic tweet.

    Exact terms of the Parler deal weren’t disclosed, though Parler said it must still enter into a definitive agreement with West and expects to close in the fourth quarter. Parler’s parent, Parlement Technologies, would remain involved by providing technical services and cloud support.

    Buying Parler could make West the latest celebrity owner of a social media platform after former President Donald Trump’s bid to win over conservatives with Truth Social and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s proposed acquisition of Twitter. It also highlights how a small group of wealthy men, some of whom were banned or suspended themselves for incendiary remarks, are looking to own social media platforms in an effort to bolster what they call “free speech.”

    “In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” West said in a release by Parler.

    As part of the announcement, Parler linked to West’s account on the platform, which appeared to have launched simultaneously. As of early Monday, the account had roughly 500 followers.

    For Ye, the deal comes during a particularly controversial period. West has made headlines in recent weeks for wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt in public and defending his use of the slogan — a phrase the Anti-Defamation League has linked to white supremacy groups — as “funny” to Fox News host Tucker Carlson. After the shirt incident, the apparel company Adidas this month said it was reviewing its partnership with West. In September, West also said he was abandoning a two-year partnership with the clothing retailer Gap.

    Speaking on CNN Monday, Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s CEO, called Parler a “haven” of hate.

    Parler was founded in 2018 and saw rapid growth surrounding the 2020 election. Billing itself as a loosely moderated free-speech haven, the app became popular with conservative politicians and media figures, peaking at an estimated 2.9 million daily users, according to the market research firm Apptopia. But since then, its fortunes have dimmed, with Parler’s estimated daily user count slipping to just 40,000, Apptopia told CNN on Monday. (Twitter, by comparison, has more than 237 million daily active users.)

    In the weeks following the Jan. 6 riots, Parler was removed from both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for what the companies said was a failure to adequately moderate violent rhetoric on the platform. Documents provided to the House committee investigating the Capitol riots have shown how the Secret Service was aware of posts on Parler that suggested the possibility of violence surrounding that day. Separately, Parler has written to Congress claiming that lawmakers’ interest in the app’s role in the riots has been intended to “scapegoat” the app.

    Parler has since been restored to both app stores after making changes to its content moderation practices.

    Parler has faced more competition in recent months as the burgeoning right-wing digital media ecosystem has expanded. Truth Social launched in February on Apple’s app store, and was approved for Google’s app store on Oct. 13. Truth Social saw a spike of downloads last week due to its appearance on the Google Play Store, Apptopia said, and before then had been hovering at 144,000 daily active users.

    Musk’s move to buy Twitter, if the deal goes through, also has the potential to upend Parler and similar services. Musk has repeatedly called for eliminating permanent bans and rethinking Twitter’s approach to content moderation, which could once again make the much larger platform a home for some of the users who jumped to small services like Parler.

    It could also effectively mean that Musk and Ye, who are said to be friends, are now competing with each other. After Ye’s antisemitic tweet sparked an outcry, Musk tweeted: “Talked to ye today & expressed my concerns about his recent tweet, which I think he took to heart.”

    One week later, Ye’s deal to buy Parler was announced.

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  • Kanye West to buy conservative social media app Parler – National | Globalnews.ca

    Kanye West to buy conservative social media app Parler – National | Globalnews.ca

    Kanye West (now known as Ye) has agreed to purchase the controversial, conservative social networking site Parler.

    Parler, which advertises itself as “the premier global free speech platform,” announced the acquisition on Monday morning. The app is often viewed by its predominately right-wing users as an alternative to existing social media options like Twitter or Facebook.

    Read more:

    Kanye West defends ‘White Lives Matter’ T-shirt, calls Black Lives Matter a ‘scam’

    Parler’s parent company, Parlement Technologies, wrote in a statement, “The acquisition ensures Parler a future role in creating an uncancelable ecosystem where all voices are welcome.”

    Last year, Parler was forced offline after major service providers accused the app of failing to police violent content related to the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by followers of then-U.S. president Donald Trump. It launched its new platform in Feb. 2021 with “sustainable, independent technology.”

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    Click to play video: 'Kanye West pays tribute to designer Virgil Abloh with choral performance'


    Kanye West pays tribute to designer Virgil Abloh with choral performance




    Parlement Technologies did not disclose the amount to be paid by Ye. However, as part of the agreement in principle, Parler staff will continue to provide technical support for the app, such as private cloud services.

    Trending Now

    “Ye has become the richest Black man in history through music and apparel and is taking a bold stance against his recent censorship from Big Tech, using his far-reaching talents to further lead the fight to create a truly non-cancelable environment,” the Parlement Technologies statement reads.

    In early October, Ye, 45, was restricted from posting on Instagram and Twitter following several erratic, antisemitic comments.

    The rapper turned fashion designer tweeted that he would go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” (A reference to the defence readiness condition — DEFCON — used by the United States Armed Forces.)

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    Ye also posted text screenshots between him and Sean “Diddy” Combs to Instagram with the caption “Jesus is Jew.”

    In the since-deleted post, Ye accused Combs of being controlled by Jewish people. The conversation between Ye and Combs was spurred by the recent release of Ye’s highly controversial “White Lives Matter” T-shirts as part of his Yeezy Season 9 event at Paris Fashion Week.


    Kanye West and Candace Owens wearing ‘White Lives Matter’ shirts at the Yeezy Season 9 event at Paris Fashion Week.

    Twitter / Candace Owens

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    Kanye West sued by pastor claiming ‘Donda’ song sampled his sermon

    “In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” Ye said in the Parlement Technologies statement.

    In the statement, Parlement Technologies CEO George Farmer said, “Ye is making a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again.”

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    “Once again, Ye proves that he is one step ahead of the legacy media narrative,” Farmer said.

    The purchase agreement is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2022.

    — With files from Reuters 

    &copy 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

    Sarah Do Couto

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