A look at Parler, a social network with little moderation, which is backed by Robert and Rebekah Mercer and saw its user base double to 10M in under a week
The libertarian-minded platform aims to challenge tech giants through a focus on free speech; surge in users since the election
Wall Street Journal
Context & Ripple Effects
Parler's growth has been compounding for over a year: from roughly 200K signups in a single week in mid-2019 — driven by users reportedly frustrated with Twitter's policies — to a 50% jump to 1.5M users around June, per its CEO. The Mercer family's backing has been the constant, with Rebekah Mercer now the named investor behind the platform.
The new data point is a step change: the user base doubling to 10M in under a week after the election, with the platform's differentiator being that it leaves moderation largely to users rather than to the company — a direct counter-position to Facebook and Twitter. The surge is political in origin, not product-led, which shapes what kind of competitor it is.
First-order effects
Parler's user base jumps from 1.5M to 10M in under a week, making it the fastest-growing right-leaning alternative and giving the Mercers a media asset at national scale almost overnight.
Facebook and Twitter now face a named, well-funded challenger whose pitch is the absence of the moderation policies those platforms enforce — every moderation controversy on the incumbents is a recruitment event for Parler.
The user-moderation model shifts the enforcement question to Apple and Google's app stores and to hosting providers, since Parler itself declines to police content the way the incumbents do.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, American social media fragments along political lines into parallel networks, with growth driven by moderation decisions at the incumbents rather than by product superiority.
The trend: Moderation crackdowns at mainstream social platforms are repeatedly converting into explosive, politically-driven growth for lightly-moderated alternatives, with billionaire patrons rather than users setting the rules.
So let's talk about Parler. Where did it come from? Founder John Matze met his now wife, Alina Mukhutdinova, in May 15, 2016 in Las Vegas. Alina is from Kazan, Russia. She was on a two week road trip “vacation” across the USA with a friend.
Parler is funded by the former owners of Cambridge Analytica. They always wanted to create a new social network to collect data and disseminate propaganda. And now they have. https://www.wsj.com/...
Shocked, not shocked: The family behind Cambridge Analytica is bankrolling Parler. The Mercer Family, Makes Play for Conservatives Mad at Facebook and Twitter https://www.wsj.com/...
NEW: @parler_app CEO John Matze joined me to defend the app's decision to leave up false info, like @TeamTrump's claim that Trump won the state of Pennsylvania: “He's entitled to his opinion... people can judge for themselves.” Will Parler fact-check that it's wrong? “No.” 1/2 ht…
Lol. Of course that's who's backing it. So the new Cambridge Analytics won't have to get data from Facebook. It'll already own Parler. https://twitter.com/...
Thread on Parler, that Twitteresque replacement pushed by the GOP. Umm. The GOP-Russia connection, um, doesn't look LESS OBVIOUS. In fact it looks like Russian ownership of the party. https://twitter.com/...
It was determined by UK ICO agency that Cambridge Analytica's efforts had no impact on US election or UK referendum. Let the Mercers similarly waste their money on Parler. https://twitter.com/...
“Anytime you take a laissez faire approach to moderation — you say, ‘anything goes’ right up until actual threats of real world violence — that creates a huge space for some really problematic things to happen,” Bret Schafer told @rebeccaklar_. https://thehill.com/...
‼️NOT surprised: after bankrolling Cambridge Analytica—the firm that used Americans' data stolen by #Russia🇷🇺 and helped flip the 2016 election to Trump—Robert and Rebekah Mercer are now bankrolling #Parler. https://www.wsj.com/...
Here's some real information about who's funding Parler, as opposed to the baseless Russia speculation in that awful viral Twitter thread. https://twitter.com/...
Whoah. I you are interested in Parler, the new internet home of the far right, you need to read this thread. Really impressive super-sleuthing by @davetroy. Follow the money https://twitter.com/...
WSJ: Hedge fund investor Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah Mercer are financially backing the social media company Parler. The Mercers previously financed a number of conservative causes, and have not disclosed their involvement with Parler https://www.wsj.com/...
1/. Very disturbing The @WSJ has just revealed that the social media app Parler, - set up as an alternative to Facebook & Twitter - is funded by the Mercers, the former owners of #CambridgeAnalytica Parler has had a surge in users since the #Election2020 https://www.wsj.com/...
Welcome to Parler, the right's favorite “free speech” social network. There are only two rules: 1. Nothing criminal. 2. No spam. Other than that, you can post what you want: https://www.wired.com/...
Users more than doubled to 10M in a week. Staff of 30 operates it. Describes itself as a “neutral platform.” More & more echo chambers! It's so hard to remember the mindset of a decade or so ago that #socialmedia was going to unite the world and spread freedom like manna. 🙄 https…
Of course they are. I have little confidence in this thing being successful. These guys only care about owning the libs. Can't do that in your nazi safe space. https://twitter.com/...
“In a twist of fate, Parler had left me silenced—not so much a public square or even a social network, but a place where only the pundits get to speak.” https://www.wired.com/...
The framing on “free speech” in the title of the article is bullshit. The Mercer family are Breitbart funders and bankrolled Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns, two actors who are happy to use government to shut down the speech of people who disagree with them. https://twitter.com/.…