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> purposefully attracted the absolute dregs of society Have Parler done anything specific to attract extremists, other than taking a hard stance on free speech

> purposefully attracted the absolute dregs of society Have Parler done anything specific to attract extremists, other than taking a hard stance on free speech? Just going by their splash page, and values page, I don't see anything that indicates they have. The fact that it's user base may be overwhelmingly "dregs" seems to just be a function of the lack of free speech in mainstream platforms.

newacct583 6y ago
> Have Parler done anything specific to attract extremists The site was, for sure, intended originally as a right wing twitter. While they probably don't want extremists, per se, they have made absolutely no attempt to moderate legitimately violent rhetoric (c.f. the Lin Wood threat last week to have Pence executed, which seems extremely frightening in retrospect). You can see some collected horror shows via aggregation like https://twitter.com/RWParlerWatch https://twitter.com/RWParlerWatch and https://www.reddit.com/r/ParlerWatch/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ParlerWatch/ It is Daily Stormer or 8kun? No, not yet. But it's really, really bad there.
- WatchDog 6y ago
  That's a shame, I'm somewhat of a free speech absolutist, barring calls for violence and other obvious illegal speech. Looking into Parlers record on moderation, they don't seem to live up to their own values, removing content that doesn't violate their values, as well as failing to remove content that does.
  - newacct583 6y ago
    Kinda. I mean... look, they're just a partisan site. There's nothing new about that, their hook was that they looked like twitter and weren't a vbulletin or whatever. It wasn't supposed to be like this. If it was just a bunch of right wingers hanging out and complaining, akin to the left-wingers you find on /r/politics or whatever, then no one would care. But right wing grievance shifted over the Trump years into explicitly violent and insurrectionist rhetoric and imagery. And as of Wednesday that's no longer a theoretical threat.
  - danaliv 6y ago
    Wait, what? You’d like to abolish free speech? Or is this an autocorrect for “absolutist?”
    - WatchDog 6y ago
      Ah, a typo yes.
- jrnichols 6y ago
  I thought that MeWe was supposed to be the new "free speech platform" but then Parler sprung up, and the really vile stuff went over there. although MeWe had quickly attracted racists and actual nazis too, though.
supertrope 6y ago
Every platform waxes poetic about "free speech" to users. Then they have to deal with the reality some users are more trouble than they're worth and they click ban. Or advertisers who pay the bills want "brand safety."
_hyrb 6y ago
> other than taking a hard stance on free speech? Every platform created for this reason that gains a large following does so specifically because it attracts people who recently got banned from some previous existing service for being terrible. See 8Chan post gamergate or Voat post-banning of r/fatpeoplehate. Not saying it's wrong to be pro-all-kinds-of-speech-allowed-on-platform-that-you-run, but those kinds of platforms usually only surge in popularity when a bunch of people get banned from a more mainstream platform where being a dick is against the rules. Edit: don't want to make it sound like big tech companies like Twitter / FB and Amazon are "good" for doing this. They're only doing this because they feel pressure to do so. If the execs had a moral compass, they would treat every user the same, and ban people based on the same set of rules.
astrange 6y ago
Parler is an astroturf social network founded by the funders of Trump’s campaign, Brexit and other such things. It’s not an alternate social network someone decided to run some day. This does also mean that if it doesn’t die right now, eventually it will when the funders get tired of it.

newacct583 6y ago

> Have Parler done anything specific to attract extremists The site was, for sure, intended originally as a right wing twitter. While they probably don't want extremists, per se, they have made absolutely no attempt to moderate legitimately violent rhetoric (c.f. the Lin Wood threat last week to have Pence executed, which seems extremely frightening in retrospect). You can see some collected horror shows via aggregation like https://twitter.com/RWParlerWatch https://twitter.com/RWParlerWatch and https://www.reddit.com/r/ParlerWatch/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ParlerWatch/ It is Daily Stormer or 8kun? No, not yet. But it's really, really bad there.

WatchDog 6y ago
That's a shame, I'm somewhat of a free speech absolutist, barring calls for violence and other obvious illegal speech. Looking into Parlers record on moderation, they don't seem to live up to their own values, removing content that doesn't violate their values, as well as failing to remove content that does.
- newacct583 6y ago
  Kinda. I mean... look, they're just a partisan site. There's nothing new about that, their hook was that they looked like twitter and weren't a vbulletin or whatever. It wasn't supposed to be like this. If it was just a bunch of right wingers hanging out and complaining, akin to the left-wingers you find on /r/politics or whatever, then no one would care. But right wing grievance shifted over the Trump years into explicitly violent and insurrectionist rhetoric and imagery. And as of Wednesday that's no longer a theoretical threat.
- danaliv 6y ago
  Wait, what? You’d like to abolish free speech? Or is this an autocorrect for “absolutist?”
  - WatchDog 6y ago
    Ah, a typo yes.
jrnichols 6y ago
I thought that MeWe was supposed to be the new "free speech platform" but then Parler sprung up, and the really vile stuff went over there. although MeWe had quickly attracted racists and actual nazis too, though.

supertrope 6y ago

Every platform waxes poetic about "free speech" to users. Then they have to deal with the reality some users are more trouble than they're worth and they click ban. Or advertisers who pay the bills want "brand safety."

_hyrb 6y ago

> other than taking a hard stance on free speech? Every platform created for this reason that gains a large following does so specifically because it attracts people who recently got banned from some previous existing service for being terrible. See 8Chan post gamergate or Voat post-banning of r/fatpeoplehate. Not saying it's wrong to be pro-all-kinds-of-speech-allowed-on-platform-that-you-run, but those kinds of platforms usually only surge in popularity when a bunch of people get banned from a more mainstream platform where being a dick is against the rules. Edit: don't want to make it sound like big tech companies like Twitter / FB and Amazon are "good" for doing this. They're only doing this because they feel pressure to do so. If the execs had a moral compass, they would treat every user the same, and ban people based on the same set of rules.

astrange 6y ago

Parler is an astroturf social network founded by the funders of Trump’s campaign, Brexit and other such things. It’s not an alternate social network someone decided to run some day. This does also mean that if it doesn’t die right now, eventually it will when the funders get tired of it.