ParlerWatch or better the twilight zone

This deserves it's own thread and is dynamic, see what the lunatics are saying. A free tour of Bedlam, get to see the mental cases chained to the wall.

A place to monitor the hive of scum and villainy in America, here people monitor and share information on America's morons, lunatics and assholes. Their gathering places and watering holes have become more rare & concentrated as they are driven into the social and political wilderness.

Parler jumps to No. 1 on App Store after Facebook and Twitter ban Trump

Users are surging on small, conservative, social media platforms after President Donald Trump’s ban from the world’s largest social networks, even as those platforms are seeing access throttled by the app marketplaces of tech’s biggest players.

The social network, Parler, a network that mimics Twitter, is now the number one app in Apple’s app store and Gab, another conservative-backed service, claimed that it was seeing an explosion in the number of signups to its web-based platform as well.

Parler saw approximately 210,000 installs globally on Friday 1/8, up 281% from approximately 55,000 on 1/7, according to data from the analytics service Sensor Tower. “In the U.S., the app saw approximately 182,000 first-time downloads on 1/8, up 355% from about 40,000 installs on 1/7. Since Wednesday, the app has seen approximately 268,000 installs from across U.S. app stores,” a press rep from Sensor Tower wrote in an email.
Parler’s ballooning user base comes at a potentially perilous time for the company. It has already been removed from Google’s Play store and Apple is considering suspending the social media app as well if it does not add some content moderation features.

Both Parler and Gab have billed themselves as havens for free speech, with what’s perhaps the most lax content moderation online. In the past the two companies have left up content posted by an alleged Russian disinformation campaign, and allow users to traffic in conspiracy theories that other social media platforms have shut down.

The expectation with these services is that users on the platforms are in charge of muting and blocking trolls or offensive content, but, by their nature, those who join these platforms will generally find themselves among like-minded users.

Their user counts might be surging, but would-be adopters may soon have a hard time finding the services.

On Friday night, Google said that it would be removing Parler from their Play Store immediately — suspending the app until the developers committed to a moderation and enforcement policy that could handle objectionable content on the platform.

In a statement to TechCrunch, a Google spokesperson said:

“In order to protect user safety on Google Play, our longstanding policies require that apps displaying user-generated content have moderation policies and enforcement that removes egregious content like posts that incite violence. All developers agree to these terms and we have reminded Parler of this clear policy in recent months. We’re aware of continued posting in the Parler app that seeks to incite ongoing violence in the US. We recognize that there can be reasonable debate about content policies and that it can be difficult for apps to immediately remove all violative content, but for us to distribute an app through Google Play, we do require that apps implement robust moderation for egregious content. In light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat, we are suspending the app’s listings from the Play Store until it addresses these issues.“

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On Friday, Buzzfeed News reported that Parler had received a letter from Apple informing them that the app would be removed from the App Store within 24 hours unless the company submitted an update with a moderation improvement plan. Parler CEO John Matze confirmed the action from Apple in a post on his Parler account where he posted a screenshot of the notification from Apple.

“We want to be clear that Parler is in fact responsible for all the user generated content present on your service and for ensuring that this content meets App Store requirements for the safety and protection of our users,” text from the screenshot reads. “We won’t distribute apps that present dangerous and harmful content.

Parler is backed by the conservative billionaire heiress Rebekah Mercer, according to a November report in The Wall Street Journal. Founded in 2018, the service has experienced spikes in user adoption with every clash between more social media companies and the outgoing President Trump. In November, Parler boasted some 10 million users, according to the Journal.

Apparently even parler has its limits

Parler's website re-surfaces with message from CEO John Matze to the 'lovers and haters' | Daily Mail Online

Parler is BACK online: Right-wing platform re-surfaces with a message from CEO John Matze to the 'lovers and haters' saying site will be back 'soon'

• Parler's website suddenly re-emerged on Sunday with a message from its CEO
• CEO and founder John Matze wrote: 'Hello world, is this thing on?' in the post
• While the website is back online in a limited capacity, its app is still offline
• A little over a week ago, Apple Inc suspended Parler from its App Store, shortly after Alphabet-owned Google banned it from Google Play
• Amazon.com Inc then suspended Parler from its web hosting service
• The Backlash against Parler came in the wake of the US Capitol riots on Jan. 6
• Parler was accused of failing to moderate posts inciting violence against elected officials, and allowing participants in the riot to plot the attack on the app

The website for the right-wing social media app Parler suddenly re-emerged with a message on Sunday, just one week after Amazon suspended it from its web hosting service and Google and Apple removed it from their app stores.

‘Hello world, is this thing on?’ CEO John Matze wrote in a message, dated January 16, accompanied by an image of an egg-timer and a ‘technical difficulties’ banner.

‘Now seems like the right time to remind you all — both lovers and haters — why we started this platform,’ Matze continued. ‘We believe privacy is paramount and free speech essential, especially on social media. Our aim has always been to provide a nonpartisan public square where individuals can enjoy and exercise their rights to both.

‘We will resolve any challenge before us and plan to welcome all of you back soon. We will not let civil discourse perish!’

While Parler's website showed limited signs of life Sunday, its app, however, remains completely offline.

A little over a week ago, Apple Inc suspended the Parler from its App Store, shortly after Alphabet-owned Google banned it from Google Play, in the wake of the US Capitol riots on January 6. The app is still unavailable for download on both platforms.

Amazon.com Inc then suspended Parler from its web hosting service, effectively taking the site offline.

In a letter announcing the move, Amazon said it ‘cannot provide services to a customer that is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others.’

Parler was largely blamed for failing to remove posts that incited violence against elected officials, including Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi. The platform was also identified as a site where people who participated in the deadly assault had planned the attack.

Parler has since re-registered its domain with the right-wing web-hosting firm Epik, a company that supports far-right sites such as Gab and 8chan.

It remains unclear who Parler's web host is, with the company not having yet commented on the matter.

In a statement to CNN, Epik spokesperson Robert Davis said the company does not provide Parler’s web hosting.

Davis said Epik has a zero-tolerance approach to fighting racism, ‘and actively denounces any activities utilized to create hardship for others based on skin color, ethnicity, origin, or belief system.’

Maybe the FBI is helping to get it back up and running! I would, think of all the labor it would save, a collection point for assholes, why go to them when they will come to you.
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Parler CEO expects network to be back by end of January (nypost.com)

Parler CEO John Matze expects social network to return by end of January

Parler CEO John Matze expects his controversial social network to get back online soon despite Amazon booting the app from its servers.

“I’m confident that by the end of the month, we’ll be back up,” Matze told Fox News Sunday night.

“Every day it changes wildly, but I feel confident now,” he added. “We’re making significant progress.”

Matze’s outlook for Parler’s future has improved since last week, when he said in a federal court filing that his company faced the “prospect of permanent destruction” after Amazon Web Services forced it to go dark.

AWS cut off Parler’s server access last Monday over concerns about the fledgling firm’s failure to police graphic threats of violence that its users posted before and after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

But Parler got its website back online Sunday after appearing to move its domain name to Epik, a web company that has generated controversy for hosting extremist content. Parler posted a message on the site promising the app’s “lovers and haters” that it would be back soon.

Additionally, Matze told Fox that Parler was able to recover its data from Amazon on Friday, which he called a key step toward rebuilding.

“Despite all of this, we haven’t even had one employee quit,” Matze told Fox. “Not one, even with them being harassed and threatened, no one has quit… we’ve got such a strong team, this has just made them believe in us more.”

Parler has filed a federal lawsuit against Amazon Web Services accusing the tech giant of forcing the app offline because of “political animus.”

Amazon’s move — which followed Apple and Google’s decisions to halt downloads of Parler’s mobile app — led other tech giants such as Slack and Stripe to drop Parler as a client, further hampering its operations, Matze has said.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Parler partially reappears with support from Russian technology firm | Reuters

Parler partially reappears with support from Russian technology firm

Jan 18 (Reuters) - Parler, a social media website and app popular with the American far right, has partially returned online with the help of a Russian-owned technology company.

Parler vanished from the internet when dropped by Amazon Inc’s hosting arm and other partners for poor moderation after its users called for violence and posted videos glorifying the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

On Monday, Parler’s website was reachable again, though only with a message from its chief executive saying he was working to restore functionality.

The internet protocol address it used is owned by DDos-Guard, which is controlled by two Russian men and provides services including protection from distributed denial of service attacks, infrastructure expert Ronald Guilmette told Reuters.

If the website is fully restored, Parler users would be able to see and post comments. Most users prefer the app, however, which remains banned from the official Apple Inc and Google stores.

Parler CEO John Matze and representatives of DDoS-Guard did not reply to requests for comment.

Last Wednesday, Matze told Reuters the company was in talks with multiple service providers but declined to elaborate.

DDoS-Guard has worked with other racist, rightist and conspiracy sites that have been used by mass murderers to share messages, including 8kun. It has also supported Russian government sites.

DDoS-Guard’s website lists an address in Scotland under the company name Cognitive Cloud LP, but that is owned by two men in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, Guilmette said. One of them told the Guardian recently that he was not aware of all of the content the company facilitates.

Parler critics said it was a potential security risk for it to depend on a Russian company, as well as an odd choice for a site popular with self-described patriots.

Russian propaganda has stoked political divisions in the United States, supporting outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump and amplifying false narratives about election fraud but also protests against police brutality.

Parler, which disclosed it has over 12 million users, sued Amazon last Monday after the ecommerce giant and cloud services provider cut off service, citing poor moderation of calls to violence. (Reporting by Kenneth Li and Elizabeth Culliford in New York and Joseph Menn in San Francisco; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

No matter the reason, we just watched monopolies crush their only competition in a long time. Seems pretty anti-competitive to me. But they did host their servers with Amazon, but they learned that lesson.

Dryxi said:

No matter the reason, we just watched monopolies crush their only competition in a long time. Seems pretty anti-competitive to me. But they did host their servers with Amazon, but they learned that lesson.

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I don't buy this line of thought. They might be giant companies, but anyone can easily find another company that does the same basic thing as companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

I can buy shit from Walmart online, or log into RIU instead of Facebook, and there are a ton of search engines to use if you don't want to log into google.

Parlor is not the only competition either, they were just a propaganda platform used to amp up Trump's cultists to the point they thought it was a cool idea to storm our national capital looking for politicians to murder.

hanimmal said:

I don't buy this line of thought. They might be giant companies, but anyone can easily find another company that does the same basic thing as companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

I can buy shit from Walmart online, or log into RIU instead of Facebook, and there are a ton of search engines to use if you don't want to log into google.

Parlor is not the only competition either, they were just a propaganda platform used to amp up Trump's cultists to the point they thought it was a cool idea to storm our national capital looking for politicians to murder.

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Other competition outside of Parlor has no bearing on the fact the big tech companies effectively shut down another company through their leverage as monopolies. We are asking them to censor content, I guess we are asking them to censor what social media app is used as well. We can't pick and choose when big companies can be anti-competitive. Hopefully this all ends with more anti-trust suits.

Dryxi said:

Other competition outside of Parlor has no bearing on the fact the big tech companies effectively shut down another company through their leverage as monopolies. We are asking them to censor content, I guess we are asking them to censor what social media app is used as well. We can't pick and choose when big companies can be anti-competitive. Hopefully this all ends with more anti-trust suits.

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They didn't 'effectively' shut down parlor, since they are already back up on another platform, is why I don't buy the monopoly snow flaking about them because they did not approve of a domestic terrorist platform using their product.

Companies everyday make decisions about their products being used.

I do have a list of things I would really like to see social media to do but using loaded words like 'censor content' is not describing the reality of what they need to do to help the people using their product stay protected in the attack that is being conducted by nations like Russia.

hanimmal said:

They didn't 'effectively' shut down parlor, since they are already back up on another platform, is why I don't buy the monopoly snow flaking about them because they did not approve of a domestic terrorist platform using their product.

Companies everyday make decisions about their products being used.

I do have a list of things I would really like to see social media to do but using loaded words like 'censor content' is not describing the reality of what they need to do to help the people using their product stay protected in the attack that is being conducted by nations like Russia.

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Google and Apple control 99% of the mobile market. Parler isn't making it back onto their stores. Effectively shut down, just not completely. I never actually used Parler, but what happened was not right. If the government decided to put restrictions on Parler, they could without issues (like they have tried to do with Facebook multiple times). They have the right to remove stuff from their stores, but as a monopoly between the two doing a group boycott of Parler, exclusion would be anti-competitive no? (to be honest, this is an opinion as I am no expert.)

Dryxi said:

Google and Apple control 99% of the mobile market. Parler isn't making it back onto their stores. Effectively shut down, just not completely. I never actually used Parler, but what happened was not right. If the government decided to put restrictions on Parler, they could without issues (like they have tried to do with Facebook multiple times). They have the right to remove stuff from their stores, but as a monopoly between the two doing a group boycott of Parler, exclusion would be anti-competitive no? (to be honest, this is an opinion as I am no expert.)

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Apple has said multiple times they would be allowed back in the App store if they implement content moderation policies like every other UGC app on their platform is required to. The question is why should Parler have its own set of rules? And no one took them offline because of political content or ideology. The platform was being used to plan attacks and coordinate killings, with tons of publicly posted rhetoric that led to ppl dying whether intentional or not.

I've got plenty more to say but I'll leave it at that.

Dryxi said:

Google and Apple control 99% of the mobile market. Parler isn't making it back onto their stores. Effectively shut down, just not completely. I never actually used Parler, but what happened was not right. If the government decided to put restrictions on Parler, they could without issues (like they have tried to do with Facebook multiple times). They have the right to remove stuff from their stores, but as a monopoly between the two doing a group boycott of Parler, exclusion would be anti-competitive no? (to be honest, this is an opinion as I am no expert.)

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Two companies is not a 'monopoly', and I don't quite know what you mean by 'control 99% of the mobile market' means.

And like someone posted already they have someone else hosting their hateful website, so they are not shut down, they are just bitching because they want to trade off the hard work of other companies good name.

I am not a expert on this and am not shitting on your opinion, but I do think it is just the narrative that these right wing hate groups have been pushing for a long time and using it to confuse people about the very real issues that some of these companies have to work through.

Im not an expert in this either man, but do think the below post is worth considering and think it is a great place to start with Parlor getting the boot.

ilovereggae said:

Apple has said multiple times they would be allowed back in the App store if they implement content moderation policies like every other UGC app on their platform is required to. The question is why should Parler have its own set of rules? And no one took them offline because of political content or ideology. The platform was being used to plan attacks and coordinate killings, with tons of publicly posted rhetoric that led to ppl dying whether intentional or not.

I've got plenty more to say but I'll leave it at that.

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Spot on.

hanimmal said:

Two companies is not a 'monopoly', and I don't quite know what you mean by 'control 99% of the mobile market' means.

And like someone posted already they have someone else hosting their hateful website, so they are not shut down, they are just bitching because they want to trade off the hard work of other companies good name.

I am not a expert on this and am not shitting on your opinion, but I do think it is just the narrative that these right wing hate groups have been pushing for a long time and using it to confuse people about the very real issues that some of these companies have to work through.

Im not an expert in this either man, but do think the below post is worth considering and think it is a great place to start with Parlor getting the boot.

Spot on.

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By 99% I'm talking about access to mobile phones. Google and Apple control that access through their play stores. Only Android has the option of not going through the play store, even then the majority of the population doesn't know what a apk is.

I haven't gotten down with the idea that all of Jan 6 was done on Parler. It was on all social media and all social media is filled with crazy meant to incite. We all knew Jan 6 was going to be a thing, didn't know what was going to happen but we knew it wasn't going to end well. I doubt many of us were on Parler to learn that fact. The "everything was planned on Parler!" and thus we should shut it down, is pretty false. I am sure Parler played a part, but it wasn't a single platform issue.

Misinformation is definitely an issue, but so is moderation. Ever been to a forum where moderators are completely neutral in their moderation? I'm not a Trump supporter and completely against storming the capitol for a coup, but I am also not behind big tech deciding what is or is not fake news. Censorship and misinformation moderation is on a thin line.

^^edited to add this

Dryxi said:

By 99% I'm talking about access to mobile phones. Google and Apple control that access through their play stores. Only Android has the option of not going through the play store, even then the majority of the population doesn't know what a apk is.

I haven't gotten down with the idea that all of Jan 6 was done on Parler. It was on all social media and all social media is filled with crazy meant to incite. We all knew Jan 6 was going to be a thing, didn't know what was going to happen but we knew it wasn't going to end well. I doubt many of us were on Parler to learn that fact. The "everything was planned on Parler!" and thus we should shut it down, is pretty false. I am sure Parler played a part, but it wasn't a single platform issue.

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You are correct. These arguments were being had all over social media and all of the companies had a hand in helping these white supremacists infiltrate regular Americans and normalize them to their philosophy over the last decade. no argument there.

the difference is really simple. All the other companies when notified of violent or hateful content would remove it. Parler refused to. The AWS response gives a dozen examples of the kind of content they refused to remove. Do you have evidence of similar content being reported and not removed from other services?

I had no idea there would be a terrorist act of insurrection, pretty sure only the nut jobs did. also are you aware of terms of service? they get confused with consitutinal rights

Dryxi said:

By 99% I'm talking about access to mobile phones. Google and Apple control that access through their play stores. Only Android has the option of not going through the play store, even then the majority of the population doesn't know what a apk is.

I haven't gotten down with the idea that all of Jan 6 was done on Parler. It was on all social media and all social media is filled with crazy meant to incite. We all knew Jan 6 was going to be a thing, didn't know what was going to happen but we knew it wasn't going to end well. I doubt many of us were on Parler to learn that fact. The "everything was planned on Parler!" and thus we should shut it down, is pretty false. I am sure Parler played a part, but it wasn't a single platform issue.

Click to expand...

Dryxi said:

By 99% I'm talking about access to mobile phones. Google and Apple control that access through their play stores. Only Android has the option of not going through the play store, even then the majority of the population doesn't know what a apk is.

Click to expand...

They are a website right? Couldn't you be on a iPhone and type into a web browser the internet address and get to their site? I really don't know, and am not worried enough about figuring out what their new website is to try it, so if I am wrong let me know.

Not carrying their app on the major platform doesn't stop them from saying anything they want on their site though.

Dryxi said:

I haven't gotten down with the idea that all of Jan 6 was done on Parler. It was on all social media and all social media is filled with crazy meant to incite. We all knew Jan 6 was going to be a thing, didn't know what was going to happen but we knew it wasn't going to end well. I doubt many of us were on Parler to learn that fact. The "everything was planned on Parler!" and thus we should shut it down, is pretty false. I am sure Parler played a part, but it wasn't a single platform issue.

Click to expand...

"All" is a pretty big qualifier.

I am not sure I have seen anyone that matters actually say that.

People need to stand up to disinformation platforms and hate groups, not amplify them and give them tools to more easily communicate and propagandize more people.