The existing platforms work well enough for people who aren’t kicked off of them, or hindered in sharing their views. Liking, caring about, or knowing of the ex

The existing platforms work well enough for people who aren’t kicked off of them, or hindered in sharing their views. Liking, caring about, or knowing of the existence of these new platforms is a strong proxy for the kinds of political views that some find easy and safe to hate on. Engagement inside Signal is with your existing networks and groups, and can only grow iteratively—not virally/exponentially—it’s a chat app. WhatsApp and Telegram do support and encourage broadcast oriented communication, and personally I do associate WhatsApp with misinformation-fueled violence in countries where it’s the first exposure people have to internet-style mass direct communication. Signal invented new cryptography to justify its existence. WhatsApp scaled chat, SMS-analogous to start, for the world to use. Telegram invented secret ways to MitM chat connections, and wasn’t under US influence. Parler exists to make a political statement in the current US political context.