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I am a "Parler User." I have an account and until it was taken down I used to check it every few days. Don't make assumptions about a person's politics from the

I am a "Parler User." I have an account and until it was taken down I used to check it every few days. Don't make assumptions about a person's politics from the mere existence of software on their device.

jfengel 6y ago
Can we make assumptions based on their presence at a political rally, followed by their unauthorized presence in a government building?
- schappim 6y ago
  I don't think you can. The user base != the service, and not all users are equal. When I look at the Parler situation, I think most likely poor management/decisions were the greatest contributing factor to their current predicament. The management probably didn't think they had a hate-speech problem until it was too late. As such, they didn't have the systems in place to deal with it, and the systems they were going to put in place were going to be tempory (as highlighted by Apple's response to their app modernisation plan).
  - watwut 6y ago
    Honestly, there was no way for them to not know that, unless they never open their own site. Their site also had moderation structures in place - leftist opinions were removed fast. It was meant for right wing only.
  - danudey 6y ago
    From any service, someone's presence at a political rally, followed by being present inside of the capitol building as a violent mob storms through while representatives are evacuated in fear of their lives, is a pretty good filter, regardless of them being Parler users, for "users who are probably either insurrectionists or journalists". You can filter down from there, but even if you mistakenly think that fifty percent of Parler users just liked the idea of free speech platforms enough that they used a site frequented by the neo-nazis despite all that, it's likely that only the violent insurrectionists happened to be the ones in the crowd, and then in the capitol building, posting things to Parler as they went.
  - sibeliuss 6y ago
    > I think most likely poor management/decisions were the greatest contributing factor to their current predicament Like, having a panel of 5 human moderators "vote" on every piece of flagged content? As if that could even scale. It was never their intent to moderate in the first place, but rather to pull large segments of our political system into the very position we're now seeing -- namely, open conflict.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
schappim 6y ago
I also signed up for Parler so I could view for my own eyes what was happening on their. It was as if Fox News and Twitter had a bad baby, and that baby was raised by the article comments on Breitbart.
mhh__ 6y ago
I think if you went into the Capitol Building even judicious uses of Bayes is probably going to spit out a good guess as to your politics.
hatmatrix 6y ago
Conditioned on the fact that these "Parler Users" were trespassing on the premises of the Capitol Building, you can build a pretty strong case that you're dealing with an insurrectionist.
- BitwiseFool 6y ago
  I disagree, what if you were just mulling around the building? Sure, that's trespassing but that's on an entirely different level from active insurrection.
  - rbanffy 6y ago
    You'd need to be extremely distracted not to notice the lines, the fence and the Capitol police being overwhelmed and assaulted. I wouldn't try that with a judge.
  - nicoffeine 6y ago
    "Hey, you guys are beating a cop to death with the American flag and breaking in to the Capitol, huh? After you get inside I'll follow you and mull around, you know, just while I'm here."
  - timoth3y 6y ago
    Then you have the right to present that defense to a jury.
- spoonjim 6y ago
  There are definitely the instigators and the people who are dragged along. The instigators are the people at the front who pushed down the police and murdered one of them. They should get life without parole. There are also a lot more people at the back who see a bunch of people running in, don't see what happened to the police officers at the front, and just kind of go with it. They still need to be punished, but not with life without parole.
  - danudey 6y ago
    "I don't know what happened to the police, but if the violent insurrectionist mob in front of me calling for the death of Mike Pence thinks it's okay to go inside who am I to argue?" Sorry, no.
Miner49er 6y ago
From my understanding they censored antifa. The platform maybe wasn't "far-right" but it seems they had a bit of a bias to the right in how they moderated. It does seem that the userbase overall skewed far right.
- noodle 6y ago
  From my understanding, the way they moderated was to show content to 5 literally random Parler users and let them decide as a group what to do with the content. This kind of by its own nature drags a platform in a specific direction based on where it started. It had a starting culture of being the alternative platform for conservative voices, and so over time that moderation technique would just push it further in that direction.
simonh 6y ago
I agree it would be wrong to draw assumptions about individual Parker users simply due to being on the system. Plenty of journalists, pundits and just interested observers were on there just to see what it was like. But when we talk about “Parler users” generally, were really talking about members of the community compelled by and possibly contributing to the discussions. For comparison I go on Fox News web site from time to time largely out of morbid fascination, but I don’t consider myself part of their audience because I don’t find any of it actually valuable or useful. And I say that as a self identified conservative, albeit a British one.
- sibeliuss 6y ago
  Is there a Fox news equivalent in the UK?
  - simonh 6y ago
    Not on TV, but we have a newspaper called the Daily Mail. It's usually pretty good on general news and opinion, but it's pretty right wing and regularly publishes manipulated statistics and disinformation on climate change and EU issues. So it's like Fox on some specific topics. The leading left wing paper is the Guardian (Sometimes referred to as the Gauniad due to it having pretty poor proofreading back in the day). It's way too leftie for me on opinion, it's grown a bit of a woke tendency, but is good on science and international news.
    - drcongo 6y ago
      It's interesting where people's boundaries sit when it comes to the far left and far right. I would class the Daily Mail (alternatively known as the Daily Heil) as extremely right wing, their editorial slant appears to be designed to drag the Overton window as far to the right as possible by outraging middle England about Muslims, refugees and house prices. I also wouldn't call the Guardian even vaguely left wing any more, given their relentless campaigning against Jeremy Corbyn and backchannels with the "Blue Labour" crowd. Sure, it's left of most of the British press, but then again Dutarte is left of most of the British press. On TV, I'd say Sky News isn't _that_ far off Fox. Extremely selective on their guests and very partisan in their correspondents.
nobody9999 6y ago
>I am a "Parler User." I have an account and until it was taken down I used to check it every few days. Don't make assumptions about a person's politics from the mere existence of software on their device. There's nothing wrong with Parler users or anyone else per-se. There is, however, a problem with violent insurrectionists. It's unfortunate that a small group of people planned and executed a violent attack on the seat of US government, although unfortunate is nowhere near a strong enough term for their acts. I don't know you, but if you don't participate in violent acts to support your political agenda and respect the rule of law, I have no problem with you. Assuming that's true, even if (and I don't know one way or another about that) I vehemently disagree with your policy perspectives, I will defend your right to hold and advocate for those perspectives. Because that's what a free society is all about. On the other hand, those that believe it's okay to use violence, lies and intimidation to achieve their political goals have no place in a free society and should be shunned, ridiculed, and if they perpetrate acts of violence, punished. I'd posit that anyone who believes in our constitutional system of government and the rule of law would agree with all of the above.
- o-__-o 6y ago
  When does an insurrectionist turn into a revolutionary? In the 1770s George Washington and ilk were insurrectionists. Now we look at them as revolutionaries. Do people who fight for change only become revolutionary when it’s an argument you agree with? Are you an insurrectionist if you fight the government to the death (literally) for what you believe in? Obvious disclaimer: I don’t hold a candle to this fight in either direction but can empathize with both sides
  - nobody9999 6y ago
    >When does an insurrectionist turn into a revolutionary? They don't. The terms are synonymous. >Obvious disclaimer: I don’t hold a candle to this fight in either direction but can empathize with both sides Why is that obvious? And as to the idea that you can "empathize with both sides," Who do you think those "sides" are? They are most certainly not those of the two major political parties in the US. They are not even those who consider themselves "conservative" or "liberal." In reality, one side supports our constitutional form of government and the rule of law. The other side despises the rule of law and seeks to use violence, intimidation and lies to destabilize my home in an attempt to seize power. The former are 98%+ of my countrymen (many of us disagree about a great many things, but not about our constitutional republic and the rule of law), and the latter are a tiny minority who wishes to impose their will on everyone else. If you see things differently, I'd love to hear your arguments.
dwd 6y ago
You can to a degree that left-leaning users were generally banned as soon as they were identified, as the site was primarily to collect data/demographics on right-leaning voters to target for fundraising and organising. Follow the money...
anigbrowl 6y ago
This isn't about you, but rather about the people who posted video that puts them at the scene of a crime. Parler-the-app doesn't broadcast location information that i'm aware of.

jfengel 6y ago

Can we make assumptions based on their presence at a political rally, followed by their unauthorized presence in a government building?

schappim 6y ago
I don't think you can. The user base != the service, and not all users are equal. When I look at the Parler situation, I think most likely poor management/decisions were the greatest contributing factor to their current predicament. The management probably didn't think they had a hate-speech problem until it was too late. As such, they didn't have the systems in place to deal with it, and the systems they were going to put in place were going to be tempory (as highlighted by Apple's response to their app modernisation plan).
- watwut 6y ago
  Honestly, there was no way for them to not know that, unless they never open their own site. Their site also had moderation structures in place - leftist opinions were removed fast. It was meant for right wing only.
- danudey 6y ago
  From any service, someone's presence at a political rally, followed by being present inside of the capitol building as a violent mob storms through while representatives are evacuated in fear of their lives, is a pretty good filter, regardless of them being Parler users, for "users who are probably either insurrectionists or journalists". You can filter down from there, but even if you mistakenly think that fifty percent of Parler users just liked the idea of free speech platforms enough that they used a site frequented by the neo-nazis despite all that, it's likely that only the violent insurrectionists happened to be the ones in the crowd, and then in the capitol building, posting things to Parler as they went.
- sibeliuss 6y ago
  > I think most likely poor management/decisions were the greatest contributing factor to their current predicament Like, having a panel of 5 human moderators "vote" on every piece of flagged content? As if that could even scale. It was never their intent to moderate in the first place, but rather to pull large segments of our political system into the very position we're now seeing -- namely, open conflict.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

schappim 6y ago

I also signed up for Parler so I could view for my own eyes what was happening on their. It was as if Fox News and Twitter had a bad baby, and that baby was raised by the article comments on Breitbart.

mhh__ 6y ago

I think if you went into the Capitol Building even judicious uses of Bayes is probably going to spit out a good guess as to your politics.

hatmatrix 6y ago

Conditioned on the fact that these "Parler Users" were trespassing on the premises of the Capitol Building, you can build a pretty strong case that you're dealing with an insurrectionist.

BitwiseFool 6y ago
I disagree, what if you were just mulling around the building? Sure, that's trespassing but that's on an entirely different level from active insurrection.
- rbanffy 6y ago
  You'd need to be extremely distracted not to notice the lines, the fence and the Capitol police being overwhelmed and assaulted. I wouldn't try that with a judge.
- nicoffeine 6y ago
  "Hey, you guys are beating a cop to death with the American flag and breaking in to the Capitol, huh? After you get inside I'll follow you and mull around, you know, just while I'm here."
- timoth3y 6y ago
  Then you have the right to present that defense to a jury.
spoonjim 6y ago
There are definitely the instigators and the people who are dragged along. The instigators are the people at the front who pushed down the police and murdered one of them. They should get life without parole. There are also a lot more people at the back who see a bunch of people running in, don't see what happened to the police officers at the front, and just kind of go with it. They still need to be punished, but not with life without parole.
- danudey 6y ago
  "I don't know what happened to the police, but if the violent insurrectionist mob in front of me calling for the death of Mike Pence thinks it's okay to go inside who am I to argue?" Sorry, no.

Miner49er 6y ago

From my understanding they censored antifa. The platform maybe wasn't "far-right" but it seems they had a bit of a bias to the right in how they moderated. It does seem that the userbase overall skewed far right.

noodle 6y ago
From my understanding, the way they moderated was to show content to 5 literally random Parler users and let them decide as a group what to do with the content. This kind of by its own nature drags a platform in a specific direction based on where it started. It had a starting culture of being the alternative platform for conservative voices, and so over time that moderation technique would just push it further in that direction.

simonh 6y ago

I agree it would be wrong to draw assumptions about individual Parker users simply due to being on the system. Plenty of journalists, pundits and just interested observers were on there just to see what it was like. But when we talk about “Parler users” generally, were really talking about members of the community compelled by and possibly contributing to the discussions. For comparison I go on Fox News web site from time to time largely out of morbid fascination, but I don’t consider myself part of their audience because I don’t find any of it actually valuable or useful. And I say that as a self identified conservative, albeit a British one.

sibeliuss 6y ago
Is there a Fox news equivalent in the UK?
- simonh 6y ago
  Not on TV, but we have a newspaper called the Daily Mail. It's usually pretty good on general news and opinion, but it's pretty right wing and regularly publishes manipulated statistics and disinformation on climate change and EU issues. So it's like Fox on some specific topics. The leading left wing paper is the Guardian (Sometimes referred to as the Gauniad due to it having pretty poor proofreading back in the day). It's way too leftie for me on opinion, it's grown a bit of a woke tendency, but is good on science and international news.
  - drcongo 6y ago
    It's interesting where people's boundaries sit when it comes to the far left and far right. I would class the Daily Mail (alternatively known as the Daily Heil) as extremely right wing, their editorial slant appears to be designed to drag the Overton window as far to the right as possible by outraging middle England about Muslims, refugees and house prices. I also wouldn't call the Guardian even vaguely left wing any more, given their relentless campaigning against Jeremy Corbyn and backchannels with the "Blue Labour" crowd. Sure, it's left of most of the British press, but then again Dutarte is left of most of the British press. On TV, I'd say Sky News isn't _that_ far off Fox. Extremely selective on their guests and very partisan in their correspondents.

nobody9999 6y ago

>I am a "Parler User." I have an account and until it was taken down I used to check it every few days. Don't make assumptions about a person's politics from the mere existence of software on their device. There's nothing wrong with Parler users or anyone else per-se. There is, however, a problem with violent insurrectionists. It's unfortunate that a small group of people planned and executed a violent attack on the seat of US government, although unfortunate is nowhere near a strong enough term for their acts. I don't know you, but if you don't participate in violent acts to support your political agenda and respect the rule of law, I have no problem with you. Assuming that's true, even if (and I don't know one way or another about that) I vehemently disagree with your policy perspectives, I will defend your right to hold and advocate for those perspectives. Because that's what a free society is all about. On the other hand, those that believe it's okay to use violence, lies and intimidation to achieve their political goals have no place in a free society and should be shunned, ridiculed, and if they perpetrate acts of violence, punished. I'd posit that anyone who believes in our constitutional system of government and the rule of law would agree with all of the above.

o-__-o 6y ago
When does an insurrectionist turn into a revolutionary? In the 1770s George Washington and ilk were insurrectionists. Now we look at them as revolutionaries. Do people who fight for change only become revolutionary when it’s an argument you agree with? Are you an insurrectionist if you fight the government to the death (literally) for what you believe in? Obvious disclaimer: I don’t hold a candle to this fight in either direction but can empathize with both sides
- nobody9999 6y ago
  >When does an insurrectionist turn into a revolutionary? They don't. The terms are synonymous. >Obvious disclaimer: I don’t hold a candle to this fight in either direction but can empathize with both sides Why is that obvious? And as to the idea that you can "empathize with both sides," Who do you think those "sides" are? They are most certainly not those of the two major political parties in the US. They are not even those who consider themselves "conservative" or "liberal." In reality, one side supports our constitutional form of government and the rule of law. The other side despises the rule of law and seeks to use violence, intimidation and lies to destabilize my home in an attempt to seize power. The former are 98%+ of my countrymen (many of us disagree about a great many things, but not about our constitutional republic and the rule of law), and the latter are a tiny minority who wishes to impose their will on everyone else. If you see things differently, I'd love to hear your arguments.

dwd 6y ago

You can to a degree that left-leaning users were generally banned as soon as they were identified, as the site was primarily to collect data/demographics on right-leaning voters to target for fundraising and organising. Follow the money...

anigbrowl 6y ago

This isn't about you, but rather about the people who posted video that puts them at the scene of a crime. Parler-the-app doesn't broadcast location information that i'm aware of.