Parler, a social media platform, is said to be in Kanye West’s cart.
But what is Parler, you might ask? Throughout this article, we’re going to provide you with everything you need to know about the controversial social media platform.
As announced on Monday by its parent organization, Parlement Technologies, music artist and creative designer for Yeezy, Kanye West, who just recently changed his legal name to Ye, has agreed to acquire the alternative social media platform, Parler.
Kanye’s decision to buy the platform comes following his controversial ban from Facebook and Twitter for infringing on the platforms’ community guidelines.
“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 statement.
With news of the purchase inspiring curiosity about the social network, we at vibeblogs have taken it upon ourselves to let you in on everything you need to know about the controversial social media platform:
What is Parler?
The application, founded in 2018 and marketed as “the premier global free speech platform,” is an alternative social media platform that seems to be a favourite amongst people with right-wing and conservative views.
Parler is similar to the microblogging app Twitter in that people can create posts called “parleys,” which, similar to “tweets,” are within a specific character limit, although Parler sets its limit to 1000 characters as opposed to Twitter’s 280 characters.
Parler users can also follow each other and converse via the comments section.
In light of perceived stringent moderation and what some Big Tech critics and right-wing activists call censorship, the company positions itself as a “solution to problems that have surfaced in recent years due to changes in Big Tech.”
Alluding to the suspension or outright permanent ban of individuals such as Ye, the highly publicized suspension of former US President Donald Trump and even YouTube personality Andrew Tate, who also recently got the boot for alleged misogynistic content.
But why is Parler controversial?
Some of Parler’s controversy can be attributed to the apparent lack of content moderation on its platform, which some opinions hold could be a medium for the dissemination of perceived harmful speech that otherwise cannot be spread on mainstream platforms.
In 2020, its co-founder, John Matze, was quoted as saying, “If you can say it on the streets of New York, you can say it on Parler.”
Therefore, implying that Parler users used to have the responsibility of checking the validity of posts made by other users in the past, although this seems to not be the case anymore, as you’ll find later in this article.
According to this article by the New York Times that same year, which compiled some of the posts found on the social network, it was observed that some level of antisemitism and conspiracy theories existed on the platform.
An example of such conspiracy theories was the QANON movement, actively seen on Parler.
At the time, any account related to the movement was taken down by other mainstream platforms for being an American political conspiracy movement, which perpetuated several falsehoods about diverse topics, as highlighted by this BBC article.
Why did Parler get banned?
The Parler application was removed from the major social-media hosting services, Apple’s Appstore and Google’s Play Store, following the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January 2021.
Google removed the mobile application from its Play store, the rationale being that posts made on Parler would “incite ongoing violence in the U.S.”
But Parler, after making adjustments to its company policies, did what tech companies tend to do after major backlash. It was relaunched. And since its relaunch on February 2021, it has since been reinstated in Apple and Google’s respective stores.
Per reports by the Associated Press, Parler stated that artificial intelligence technology and human assessment will be employed to takedown “threatening or inciting content.”
He went on to say that appeals would be reviewed by a “community jury” overseen by a Parler employee.
Who owns Parler?
Parler was co-founded by Rebekah Mercer, the daughter of Robert Mercer, a billionaire hedge fund investor, and John Matze, the company’s chief executive until January 29th, 2021.
The current CEO of Parlement Technologies, which Parler is a subsidiary of, is George Farmer, the husband of the conservative political commentator at the Daily Wire, Candace Owens.
Candace and Ye appear to have a cordial relationship.
The two have been photographed together numerous times over the past few years, including the infamous one taken at the Paris fashion show earlier this month when they stood hand in hand while donning identical, controversial “White Lives Matter” t-shirts.
As previously stated, Ye has agreed to acquire Parler, and the transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
As reported by Politico, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and Twitter recently temporarily banned Ye from their platforms for what they deemed repeated violations of company policies.
Some of the violations responsible for Ye’s ban from the platforms include posts he made that allegedly contained anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and remarks. He eventually took down the posts, but the damage had already been done.
Ye, who is known for being outspoken about his thoughts and opinions, had previously used social media platforms, especially Instagram, to criticise his now ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, who filed for divorce from him in 2021, and her boyfriend at the time, Pete Davidson.
Calling him a pawn and sharing a graphic claymation video depicting a Pete lookalike being buried alive.
How much is Parler worth?
According to Reuters, the Nashville-based company has raised about $56 million to date, but the exact terms of the agreement that will see Ye purchase the company are currently unknown.
So far, Parler claims to have over 16 million registered users with even fewer active users on its platform as of September 2022.
According to reports from TechCrunch, Parler’s monthly active users on the two major tech operating systems, IOS and Android are 250,000 which is rather minute compared to Facebook’s 2.9 billion monthly active users & Twitter’s over 200 million monetizable daily active users (mDAUs).
It’s worth noting that Twitter stopped reporting monthly active users in 2019.
Who is on Parler? Is Trump affiliated?
Irrespective of the social media platform’s appeal to conservatives, Donald Trump, the former president of the US who rose to power with the conservative-backed Republican party, is not an active user of Parler.
However, there’s a TeamTrump account which was used for his previous campaign, but the account hasn’t made a post in over a year.
In the past, Ye publicly stated his support for Trump, going as far as meeting with him at the oval office in 2018.
Similar to Ye, Trump was also banned from Meta & Twitter, although he would go on to be banned on Snapchat and YouTube in the months after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election because of a post he made surrounding voting misinformation and the infamous Capitol insurrection.
Trump, on the other hand, uses Truth Social, an alternative social media platform that he helped launch this year.
Some of the other popular users and government officials who use Parler include US Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.
Sean Hannity, Fox News anchor, and now Ye, who joined the platform on the same day the acquisition was announced.
Let us know what your thoughts are on the acquisition. Do you think it’s a celebrity stunt or he might just renege on it like Elon Musk tried to do at the last minute during his Twitter purchase deal? Tell us in the comments!
