Parler is a social media app, which claims to be an “unbiased social media app, where people could speak freely without any fear of being ‘de-platformed’ for views”.
It was founded in 2018 and positions itself as an alternate platform to mainstream offerings such as Facebook or Twitter, etc.
Like posts on Twitter are called tweets, posts on Parler are called parleys (and they can be of up to 1000 characters).
Parler is believed to have a significant base of Trump supporters and right-wing extremists.
While Parler claims to offer a “speak freely” platform, many left-wingers claim they are banned from Parler.
Parler rose in popularity recently when Facebook, Twitter, etc. became active in cracking down on misinformation & misleading content during the recent US Presidential election.
Many media personalities showed their keenness for Parler around the election time, e.g. Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, in a tweet claimed she would be leaving Twitter soon and asked people to join Parler.
Parler became controversial during the US Presidential election when theories about election fraud against Biden & other conspiracy theories spread widely on it.
Accounts using Nazi Swastikas and spreading racial (e.g., hatred against Jews) posts, and issuing death threats are said to have already been common.
Recent reports suggested that extremists were using the app to organize pro-Trump events and that it was the communication hub for the rioters who stormed the US Capitol last week.
Google & Apple, while banning Parler, said the processes deployed by the company to prevent the spread of hate and violence were not robust/sufficient.
On 11th Jan 2021, Amazon stopped hosting it on Amazon Web Services (AWS), making www.parler.com unavailable.
Many believe that Donald Trump may use Parler unreasonably, now that he has lost access to his accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
One of the founders of Parler is Rebekah Mercer, daughter of Robert Mercer, the co-founder of Cambridge Analytica, a data analysis firm that was charged with stealing data of over 49 million people to skew the 2016 election in Trump’s favor.
