A look at Parler, backed by Rebekah Mercer, which has doubled its user base to 10M in a week, but unlike Facebook and Twitter leaves moderation to users
primarily the removal of spam, threats of violence, or illegal activity—is handled by ‘community jurors’, all currently volunteers.” https://www.wsj.com/... Hayes Brown / @hayesbrown : So.........not The Russians? Because I saw a thread. https://twitter.com/... Malcolm Nance / @malcolmnance : OH THIS IS GOOD: The origins of Parler? Starts with a trip & marriage in Russia. https://twitter.com/... Eric Garland / @ericgarland : 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/... @snb19692 : Parler & Cambridge Analytica connections. Don't forget THOMAS BORWICK who is still active. The chief technology officer for Vote Leave also worked at high level for Cambridge Analytica & AggregateIQ. https://twitter.com/... Stefan Simanowitz / @stefsimanowitz : 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/... @chrisinsilico : 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/... Sara Sidner / @sarasidnercnn : Whoa. Didn't see that coming. https://twitter.com/... Neal Khosla / @nealkhosla : Well here's the answer to the highly speculative thread I stupidly retweeted yesterday. https://twitter.com/... Ms. Sema / @_semahernandez_ : Totally on brand. https://twitter.com/... @occupylondon : This is really frightening, we are being turned against each other by design https://twitter.com/... Nick Miller / @nickmiller510 : I downloaded Parler here's who I can follow to “personalize” my experience https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... @watchyourrepsmn : These are the people who brought us cambridge analytica https://twitter.com/... Michael Calore / @snackfight : Parler, aka “conservative Twitter,” has rules that prohibit the use of spam bots. But when @pardesoteric joined the social network, she found that the Trump campaign's official Parler account was (yep!) spamming users by using a bot https://www.wired.com/... Joshua Ostroff / @joshuaostroff : This is like a Marvel mid-credits scene. Guess the string-pulling megarich Mercers are coming back as the main villain in the next movie. https://twitter.com/... @profcarroll : 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/... @wired : 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/... George Takei / @georgetakei : Are we paying attention, everyone? https://twitter.com/... Carole Cadwalladr / @carolecadwalla : 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/... Brandon Hardin / @hardin : if there's one thing you can count on it's the mercers platforming white nationalism https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... Brooke Binkowski / @brooklynmarie : Of course they are. What a grift. https://twitter.com/... Hamza Shaban / @hshaban : 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/... John Leavitt / @leavittalone : The Mercer family is basically keeping the alt right alive https://twitter.com/... Friday Night / @bereftofthedial : These are the people who back a huge chunk of the right wing media apparatus that could not survive without them. https://twitter.com/... @drdenagrayson : ‼️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/... Eric Seufert / @eric_seufert : 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/... Astra Taylor / @astradisastra : And you think this site is hellish. https://twitter.com/... Kyle Munson / @kylemunson : 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://twitter.com/... @donmoyn : 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/... @securedemocracy : “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/... Julian Chokkattu / @julianchokkattu : “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/... J.D. Durkin / @jivedurkey : 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 https://twitter.com/... Mike Masnick / @mmasnick : 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/... Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman : 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/... Tommy Vietor / @tvietor08 : 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/...
Wall Street Journal
Context & Ripple Effects
Parler's growth has been compounding for over a year: roughly 200K signups in June 2019, when traffic was driven by Saudi users frustrated with Twitter, then a 50% jump to 1.5M around June 2020 as Republicans flocked to the platform. Doubling again to 10M in a single week puts it on a different curve entirely.
The operational detail matters as much as the number: about 30 staff run the site, and content removal — spam, threats, illegal activity — is delegated to volunteer 'community jurors'. That is a structurally cheaper moderation model than Facebook's or Twitter's, and one funded by Robert and Rebekah Mercer, who previously financed Cambridge Analytica.
First-order effects
Facebook and Twitter now face a rival whose per-user moderation cost approaches zero, letting it absorb politically disaffected users at a pace their trust-and-safety budgets cannot match.
Parler's stated rules against criminal content and spam collide with its own ecosystem: the Trump campaign's official account reportedly used a bot to spam users, testing whether volunteer jurors will enforce rules against the platform's core constituency.
Second-order effects
Rival right-wing platforms feel the same pull — Gab claimed 10,000+ new signups per hour when Parler hit #1 on Apple's App Store — turning 'neutral' social apps into a competitive category rather than a single refuge.
With platform-level moderation thin, enforcement migrates upstream to distribution gatekeepers: Apple's App Store ranking becomes the choke point through which mainstream pressure on these networks is actually applied.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, social networking bifurcates into professionally moderated incumbents and patron-funded alternatives where governance is crowdsourced to volunteers and capital comes from political donors — a structure echoing the Mercers' Cambridge Analytica financing.
App-store operators are positioned to become de facto speech regulators for the alternative tier, since volunteer-juror models leave no corporate moderation function for governments or advertisers to negotiate with.
The trend: Partisan alternative social networks are scaling on billionaire patron capital and user-run moderation, shifting the real enforcement burden from the platforms themselves to app-store gatekeepers.
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.
Oh, and one more thing. It seems NDMASCENDANT LLC was filed by Greenberg Traurig, LLP. If that sounds familiar it's because it's Rudy Giuliani's former firm. He was traveling in Russia and the region at the time Parler was founded in late 2018.
Pretty rich for indescribably wealthy Rebekah Mercer to says she's standing up against the “ever increasing tyranny and hubris of our tech overlords” by investing in Parler https://www.wsj.com/...
Now let's talk money. Parler LLC is owned by two member entities: John Matze and NDMASCENDANT LLC. There is no public record of who comprises NDMASCENDANT LLC. It is a Delaware corporation. The company has not raised any traditional VC rounds that we can see.
“The minimal enforcement that exists—primarily the removal of spam, threats of violence, or illegal activity—is handled by ‘community jurors’, all currently volunteers.” https://www.wsj.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/...
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/...
Parler & Cambridge Analytica connections. Don't forget THOMAS BORWICK who is still active. The chief technology officer for Vote Leave also worked at high level for Cambridge Analytica & AggregateIQ. https://twitter.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/...
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/...
Parler, aka “conservative Twitter,” has rules that prohibit the use of spam bots. But when @pardesoteric joined the social network, she found that the Trump campaign's official Parler account was (yep!) spamming users by using a bot https://www.wired.com/...
This is like a Marvel mid-credits scene. Guess the string-pulling megarich Mercers are coming back as the main villain in the next movie. https://twitter.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…
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/...
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/...
‼️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/...
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/...
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…
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/.…
“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/...
“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/...
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/...
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/...
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/...