The social network Parler, bought by American rapper Kanye West on Monday (17), was seen in 2020 as a pillar of free speech by American conservatives. The excitement didn’t last long.
The platform is emptied and works like a low-budget Twitter, with hashtags and functions equivalent to tweets and retweets. In Parler, texts can have up to a thousand characters and can be edited, a feature that the other should launch soon.
The difference is that there are no people and no content. The topics of interest selected when creating an account don’t matter because there aren’t enough niche spokespeople.
Parler gained popularity among American conservatives in 2020 after sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook branded posts by former President Donald Trump and his supporters with warnings of misinformation and incitement to violence.
Right-wing groups that take a stand against the content moderation policies of the major platforms were attracted by the vision of freedom of expression propagated by the new social network.
“Content curation biased policies allow violent groups and bullies to influence the Community Guidelines. Parler’s viewpoint-neutral policies foster a community of individuals who tolerate the expression of all non-violent ideas,” reads the “Our Values” section. ” from the website.
On Parler’s timeline, between posts about freedom of expression and with motivational phrases, there are ads for bulletproof vests, gun sales and erectile dysfunction medication.
In the column on the left, below the “Profile” and “Notifications” sections, a link leads to an online store that sells T-shirts with the phrase “I will not be cancelled.” In the column on the right, there is a news section with critical calls to the government of US President Joe Biden.
The search box above malfunctions and cannot search for “parleys,” as the network calls its tweets. Below the news, there is a block with suggestions from profiles like Fox News and other right-wing influencers. All with low or no engagement.
For example, the number of followers of conservative US profiles rarely exceeds 1 million. The most-followed account owner, Republican Senator Ted Cruz, has 5.1 million followers but no posts.
After the success on the American right, the social network also won over Bolsonaristas in Brazil. President Jair Bolsonaro and his sons created accounts on the app and migrated content to the platform, calling on their followers to do the same.
In Brazil, Parler has even less appeal than in the US. Bolsonaro’s profile has 107,000 followers, compared to more than 9.4 million on Twitter. The posts are limited to reproducing what was published on the other social network and earn 20 to 30 likes.
Flávio and Carlos Bolsonaro, respectively, have 118,000 and 133,000 followers, but their posts also take time to reach dozens of interactions. Eduardo Bolsonaro, with 806, narrows the profile.
Accounts from other Bolsonarista personalities such as Filipe G. Martins, federal deputy Bia Kicis (PL-DF), Ernesto Araújo and Abraham Weintraub, with a few thousand followers each, have no publication.
“It’s sad to see that the right still doesn’t understand that, if it doesn’t strengthen here and stay on Twitter and Facebook, it will be prevented from communicating at the right time. Everything you post there, post here. Even without visualization, to strengthen here” , commented a user in a post with 10 likes by the influencer Bernardo Kuster.
The app has become the most popular free tool for iPhones in the Apple store. However, it was removed from the Android and iOS stores in January 2021 after the Washington Capitol raid on charges of spreading hate speech.
After the removal, Parler suffered a blackout, with right-wing names from around the world, including Bolsonaristas, migrating to Telegram, where they remain to this day – a niche social network is not necessary when even the big platforms fail to moderate their content.
This year, Parler was reintegrated into the app stores and created a new parent company, Parlement Technologies Inc, as part of a revamp, but it remains relatively unimportant.
This week’s most popular post has around 8,000 likes. Posted by the official profile of the social network, she announces the purchase by American rapper Kanye West.
The announcement was fixed on the social network timeline until this Wednesday (19). During this period, the publication reached about 450 thousand views. The rapper himself has just 20,000 followers on the platform, compared to 31.5 million on Twitter.
“This deal will change the world and change the way the world thinks about free speech. Ye is making a groundbreaking move in the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again,” said the Parler CEO George Farmer in the post.
Kanye West decided to buy the social network after being blocked from Instagram and Twitter for violating content guidelines – even though he had already recovered the accounts. On the afternoon of this Wednesday (19), he published it for the first time.
“Romans 8-31: ‘What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?'” he wrote.
I am Frederick Tuttle, who works in 247 News Agency as an author and mostly cover entertainment news. I have worked in this industry for 10 years and have gained a lot of experience. I am a very hard worker and always strive to get the best out of my work. I am also very passionate about my work and always try to keep up with the latest news and trends.
