After a significant surge in sign-ups after Twitter censored and suspended conservative meme-makers to heads of state, the free speech social media platform known as “Parler” hit number one on the Apple App Store’s News section.
The screenshot was posted in a parlay by CEO and creator of Parler, John Matze, who wrote:
This is our victory as a community for free speech over the tech tyrants. This is a symbol that we want a Town Square for free discussion. We the people do not want to be told what to think, we do not want to be manipulated, and we want our data to be private. We reject technofascism and those who think they are the sole arbiters of truth. We reject their biased editorial panels, we reject their “fact checkers” and we reject censorship. #SpeakFree
Twitter slapped a label on another one of President Donald Trump’s tweets on Tuesday, claiming that it violated its rules about “abusive behavior.” Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted that “there will never be an ‘Autonomous Zone’ in Washington, D.C., as long as I’m your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!”
“We’ve placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our policy against abusive behavior, specifically, the presence of a threat of harm against an identifiable group,” a Twitter spokesperson said. The tweet is remaining on the platform “given its relevance to ongoing public conversation.” Users will be able to retweet it with comment, but they will not be able to “like,” “reply” or merely retweet it.
Parler was founded in 2018 by John Matze and Jared Thomson who, per the company about page, were “exhausted with a lack of transparency in big tech, ideological suppression and privacy abuse.”
While the site was never exclusively pitched as a conservative answer to Twitter, it has seen an explosion in publicity and interest since Twitter fact-checked one of Trump’s tweets for the first time on May 26.
Since then, the Parler app has steadily climbed up the app store rankings and the site now has more than a million users, 10 times more than a year ago.
On Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) became the latest high-profile Republican to announce he was joining the site, “This platform gets what free speech is all about, and I’m excited to be a part of it,” Cruz said in a video message on Twitter, calling for an “end” to “Silicon Valley censorship.”
MacDailyNews Take: Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action, there is a reaction. More info and download link for the Parler app via Apple’s App Store here.