Parler (par-lur) Vous

“[P]osting pictures of your fecal matter in the comment section WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.”

As Twitter and Facebook are being forced to deal with questionable if not unlawful postings, as Congressional committees and subcommittees keep calling their senior executives to account for not responding appropriately or fast enough to manipulated false information – with takedowns and adding contrary information – conspiracy theorists and supporters of Trump’s totally absurd and thoroughly judicially discredited claims of a totally fraudulent election are finding those doors closing fast. Republicans keep crying “exclusionary liberal bias” against those social media giants, while liberals accuse them of fanning the flames of fake news. In the meantime, there is a new kid in town, one totally dedicated to serving as a conduit for those who thrive on spreading and receiving fake news and conspiracy theories.

Launched in 2018, it’s called Parler. That its logo sports the same coloration as a red MAGA hat is no accident. And it is finding lots of funding from ultra-conservative/populist investors. Jody Serrano, writing for the November 16th Gizmodo.com, fills in some blanks: “Parler, the social media network that describes itself as the ‘world’s premier free speech platform,’ which is apparently another way to say a space for misinformation and conspiracy theories like QAnon, is unsurprisingly backed by conservative megadonor Rebekah Mercer, the Wall Street Journal has found.

“In a Saturday [11/14] report, the Journal stated that Mercer was the lead investor in the social media company at its onset and that her support was contingent on Parler allowing users to control what they see. On its website, Parler boasts that it allows its users to ‘moderate [their] own world,’ or customize what they want or do not want to see in their own feed while letting others decide for themselves what they want to see. Mercer has been a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump and other conservative causes.

“Before Mercer’s involvement was disclosed, few of its investors were known to the public. Nonetheless, we did have some inkling. Fox News commentator Dan Bongino and angel investor Jeffrey Wernick, who is the company’s COO, have publically disclosed that they are backers.

“In a post on Parler, Mercer appeared to go beyond saying she was just giving the social media platform money, describing herself as a co-founder… ‘[Parler CEO] John [Matze] and I started Parler to provide a neutral platform for free speech, as our founders intended, and also to create a social media environment that would protect data privacy,” Mercer wrote on Parler on Saturday [11/14]. ‘The ever increasing tyranny and hubris of our tech overlords demands that someone lead the fight against data mining, and for the protection of free speech online. That someone is Parler, a beacon to all who value their liberty, free speech, and personal privacy.’…

“Parler has experienced a tremendous surge in downloads following the U.S. presidential election, which makes sense considering many conservatives are mad at major social media platforms for trying to do good for once and crack down on election misinformation and allegations of imaginary voter fraud… In the last week, it has taken the top spot on Apple and Google’s app stores. The Journal found that the platform’s user base more than doubled to 10 million in less than a week.

“‘People from all walks of life, fed up with opaque, biased content curation, inconsistent agenda-driven fact checking, and manipulative algorithms built on data mining, are joining Parler to speak free,’ Matze said in a Nov. 10 letter to users announcing the surge in growth. ‘Facebook and Twitter’s suppression of election information was a catalyst, causing many people to lose their trust. But the movement away from these platforms was already well underway.’…

“What kind of stuff can you find on Parler? If you think about the people or groups that have been kicked off or stirred up a storm on mainstream social media apps, you can get a pretty good idea. According to the Anti-Defamation League—which points out that although the platform is not an extremist platform, it hosts a ‘significant and growing’ number of users with mostly right-wing extremist ideologies—extremists with large followings on Parler include the anti-Muslim extremist Laura Loomer, InfoWars’ ‘Stop the Steal Caravan’ with Owen Shroyer, the terroristic Proud Boys movement and QAnon conspiracy theorists.

“Oren Segal, vice president of the ADL’s Center on Extremism, told CNN that Parler could possibly normalize radical views by exposing non-extremists to them… ‘If a lot of people start migrating onto a platform to hear the Laura Ingrahms and Sean Hannitys, but are getting a steady dose of Proud Boys ... that may normalize the fringes in a way that normally it wouldn’t,’ Segal said.” The platform is currently free to its users, and while it doesn’t generate much revenue yet, the site expects to leverage its reach and its influencers into generating ad values in the future.

“Parler has become the go-to place for right-wing and extremist commentators and other political figures getting fact-checked and deplatformed by the bigger social media sites for spreading disinformation… Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, whose programs have been banned from Facebook, Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and YouTube, is on Parler. As are the far-right Proud Boys,  which have been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Other Parler-ites include presidential offspring Eric and Ivanka Trump, as well as Fox News stars such as Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity.

“There’s even a bit of Hollywood in the mix, in the form of celebs such as Scott Baio, Kirstie Alley and new age-y keyboardist and TV presenter John Tesh, whose very public defection from Twitter brought out the quipsters. (‘Serious question, did anyone know he was on Twitter?’ asked an anonymous user named @NotHoodlum .)” Los Angeles Times, November 29th. As developers are increasingly able to deploy artificial intelligence and internal fact checking in near real time to counter fake news, there is a very large group of people who just don’t believe contrary evidence, no matter how scientifically it might be generated.

The site accredits influencers with varying levels of credibility “badges,” but the topics can get pretty extreme with very few rules. “Matze says that while unfettered speech is at the core of the platform, there are nonetheless some rules that govern Parler.

“He has said the platform tries to control for phenomena such as pornography and spam. (Though I have come across plenty of both in my time on the site, including an infinite number of parleys offering Trump merch.) He also once posted that ‘posting pictures of your fecal matter in the comment section WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.’… There is still poop. But it’s not just in the photos. It’s embedded in an architecture that seems hellbent on legitimizing and elevating hate and disinformation in the name of free speech.” LA Times.

What is troubling is the growing desensitization of skepticism, the legitimization of disinformation (a useful tool for our enemies) and hate…  that so many Americans make decisions and cast ballots that are completely consistent with the tsunamis of false information posted on sites like Parler. How do duly elected officials, from any political party, govern when so many of their constituents believe in completely false narratives on key issues? And if these genuinely evil and destructive forces cannot be contained, can any democracy survive and prosper? If democracy dies, whose false narrative will replace that once dependable form of governance?

I’m Peter Dekom, and at least the more we discuss and expose these purveyors of lies, hatred and blame, the greater the chance of containing the damage they are inflicting on us all.