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Glenn is wrong that Parler is pro-free speech. They censor all kinds of things, including those with different political views. https://www.techdirt.com/articl

Glenn is wrong that Parler is pro-free speech. They censor all kinds of things, including those with different political views. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200630/23525844821/parler-speedruns-content-moderation-learning-curve-goes-we-allow-everything-to-were-good-censors-days.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200630/23525844821/parle...

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mtlynch 6y ago
I've never used Parler, but I find it strange that most of the discussion around it is based on characterizations of the platform without evidence, so I was interested to see an article with actual evidence. But the evidence in this article didn't seem to match the claims. To prove that Parler banned people with different political views, they show a screenshot of CEO John Matze posting this message: >To all the ANTIFA supporters who have been spinning up Parler accounts... next time you should leave your chat server private... Im pretty sad you guys kicked me out... PS. Your VPNs can't save you The article author treats that as evidence that Matze indiscriminately kicked out people who identify as part of Antifa. I think it's hard to tell from that screenshot alone, but my reading of the quote is that Matze found a public chat server where Antifa members were conspiring to create Parler accounts strictly for the sake of disrupting the platform. I don't view this as political censorship. The article also paints Matze as hypocritical for banning Parler users who disrupt conversations by spamming porn or pictures of feces. That doesn't seem hypocritical to me, either. You can be welcoming to alternative viewpoints while still enforcing rules that encourage constructive discussion.
- Miner49er 6y ago
  Yeah you might be right about the antifa post, but the CEO should call them spammers and trolls instead of ANTIFA then, because the he's banning spammers or trolls then, not people specifically for being antifa. He also shouldn't be publicly posting in an excited way about banning them. Finally, only right-wingers and generally people who don't like antifa capitalize every letter of ANTIFA, so that just further makes this post horrible PR, and seems like he's gleefully banning political views he doesn't agree with.

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mtlynch 6y ago

I've never used Parler, but I find it strange that most of the discussion around it is based on characterizations of the platform without evidence, so I was interested to see an article with actual evidence. But the evidence in this article didn't seem to match the claims. To prove that Parler banned people with different political views, they show a screenshot of CEO John Matze posting this message: >To all the ANTIFA supporters who have been spinning up Parler accounts... next time you should leave your chat server private... Im pretty sad you guys kicked me out... PS. Your VPNs can't save you The article author treats that as evidence that Matze indiscriminately kicked out people who identify as part of Antifa. I think it's hard to tell from that screenshot alone, but my reading of the quote is that Matze found a public chat server where Antifa members were conspiring to create Parler accounts strictly for the sake of disrupting the platform. I don't view this as political censorship. The article also paints Matze as hypocritical for banning Parler users who disrupt conversations by spamming porn or pictures of feces. That doesn't seem hypocritical to me, either. You can be welcoming to alternative viewpoints while still enforcing rules that encourage constructive discussion.

Miner49er 6y ago
Yeah you might be right about the antifa post, but the CEO should call them spammers and trolls instead of ANTIFA then, because the he's banning spammers or trolls then, not people specifically for being antifa. He also shouldn't be publicly posting in an excited way about banning them. Finally, only right-wingers and generally people who don't like antifa capitalize every letter of ANTIFA, so that just further makes this post horrible PR, and seems like he's gleefully banning political views he doesn't agree with.