One app and how it is allegedly connected with several “not-so-great” things such as the riots in Capitol Hill.
What Is Parler?
Parler is an alternative social media platform favoured by conservatives and it looks like a combination of Twitter and Instagram. Founded in 2018, the app bills itself as “unbiased social media” and according to its website and App Store description, it says that it is a place where people can “speak freely and express themselves openly without fear of being ‘deplatformed’ for your views”.
The platform has been claimed to be heavily used by supporters of President Donald Trump. Conservative politicians and media personalities including Fox News host Sean Hannity, radio personality Mark Levin, far-right activist Laura Loomer, Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Devin Nunes are active on Parler. Eric Trump, the son of President Trump as well as President Trump’s presidential campaign has an account verified by Parler.
It sounds like Parler is a home for American conservatives. But the important thing to note here is that the app has been banned now. Why? And By Whom?
Banning Parler
Apple, Google and Amazon have banned Parler from their platforms, saying that it had not taken enough measures to ensure that content inciting violence remains in check. Being banned from Amazon’s cloud hosting service, Amazon Web Services, was the biggest hit to Parler because it depended on AWS to operate. The three tech giants banned Parler in a span of a little more than 24 hours.
The company has also had its services suspended by a slew of other providers, losing customer service support from Zendesk, phone number verification from Twilio and identity management software from Okta.
The Why & The What
The ban of Parler comes after an armed mob of Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill on January 6. The mob also clashed with the police. How is this incident related to Parler? Several reports say that some who use the platform participated in the turmoil on the U.S Capitol last Wednesday.
A report by ADL (Anti-Defamation League), in November last year, said, Parler has attracted a range of right-wing extremists. Even though the platform is not an extremist platform, it hosts a considerable and growing number of users who abide by a wide variety of mostly right-wing extremist ideologies. Since Parler has content that encourages violence against others, companies felt that now is the best time to dissociate themselves from this platform.
Zooming Out
This is not the first time an extreme action has been taken against a platform. In October 2020, YouTube said that it would be taking additional measures to block content related to QAnon. In July last year, Reddit also banned one of its largest pro-Trump subreddis, quoting a violation in its updated policy on hate speech.
All in all, we feel that the content, which spreads misinformation, hate, racism should be controlled by the platform and any platform that randomly spouts them should be brought into questioning. We cannot say for sure that the content present in Parler led to the protests in Capitol Hill but we can see how the platform acted as a driver for that. This makes us question how social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and more, spread more and more misinformation every day but still haven’t taken any bigger step to stop it because, to be honest, we desperately need some bigger steps to make the world a better place.
Head to moneyguru’s Insight section to stay updated on all major financial news updates of the day!
