I was never a fan of Twitter or any of the things similar to it that have come before it simply because I have enough social media in my life already - to the point where I am walking away from almost all of them. This platform and a few others I still keep around but have deleted anything that can be considered even remotely political as it is just the usual bitching and fussing and people being mean to one another.
How Twitter ever became popular in the first place is for the younger folks to understand, not me but I do believe that there is very real censorship going on over there and of course this is primarily targeting conservatives.
Even though I have very little intention of using it all that much, I too installed Parler this week on my phone and even though I already hate it, I am happy to see that they are seeing a lot of customers taken away from Twitter purely because I think that having a small group of companies in charge of all the flow of information is a very bad thing. I've also divorced myself from all Google products for the same reason (duck duck go and Brave, for example.)
src
Now after following a few people on Parler it is apparent to me that this is very much a conservative place, which I have issues with despite the fact that I am a conservative. This is the early stages of creating yet another echo chamber which if you are unfamiliar with that term it simply means that you are only going to see or hear things that already align with your worldview and therefore you will not be very likely to encounter any dissenting opinions or ever be able to think for yourself. You are simply going to become a sheep while all the while actually opting to do so.
Anyone can join Parler though, and they don't, at least for now, appear to censor anything that isn't illegal such as child pornography - which if you are looking for that kind of stuff you are the worst kind of human and I hope you end up in prison where you are beaten almost to death on a daily basis.
src
For this to hit number one on the charts is a very big deal because even though their number of users are far lower than Twitter at this point, it could continue to grow and then we have a little thing called "competition" that would without government intervention, keep both platforms in check to a certain degree. This is one of the major tenets of being a being a believer in the Libertarian way of life, which is something I strongly encourage.
The mass media, including that fat bald guy on CNN have already done a bunch of stories about how Parler is a "threat to our democracy" and other such nonsense but just like most of the things that the main stream media attempts to do their words had the opposite affect that they had hoped: It actually increased interest in the app and may have contributed to a lot of people that have never even heard of it to go and check it out.
I honestly don't have much use for the app but then again, I am not someone that likes to use social media a great deal nor do I particularly like to be lead down a path on how to think. I do, however, appreciate the fact that Parler (again, as of yet) promises to not censor any information that is put on there the way that Twitter does and this for the most part is a very good thing. Twitter has shown us over the past 4 years that they definitely have an agenda and while that may actually be the case with Parler as well, if enough people make the switch, the censorship will probably ease up on both sides.
Now if someone could just do something about Facebook. Oh wait! I already know the answer to that... you could just leave!
I consider most politics far to my left, and reckon any policies which fail to properly assign responsibility and authority to the sovereign individuals thereby affected some imposition of enslavement, so expect we agree on principle at least.
Because enabling forthright speech is fundamental to human society, any means that extends and increases our ability to hear and confer with one another without being censored or indoctrinated with institutional propaganda I consider a good thing. Glad you find Parler to be such a means. Hope it stays that way.
Thanks!
It could have been Hive!
It co|u|ld ha|ve bee|n a different platform, like "Minds" created by the data mining geek who got a promotion just as minds came to be. what a coincidence...
Hmmm.. Intriguing
Hive? Where the @hivewatcher watches over what you should read?
"Is {insert whatever social platform "name" here} going to be data mined?" YES.
But since you are the sole responsible entity of your own account, with anonymity if you so wish to keep it. want something more private that it is impossible to be hacked? stay quiet and say nothing. don't speak. shhh. forever. keep it in your head then.
otherwise join ANOTHER of billions yet to come social platforms coming to a train near you.
Try Flote and Gab too. But Hive is best, and boring crap like Parler is a waste of space
i don't disagree with that. I am just happy to see that Twitter is not the only player in the game anymore. Hopefully this can keep the complaining about censorship to a minimum if Parler keeps gaining steam.
I had a twitter account once when I owned a business. I found the "shopping for followers" aspect of it to be too annoying. For my own personal use I never cared much for twitter and don't believe I ever had a personal account. While I am very unlikely to use Parler or Twitter I do like a little competition so this is good news.
A site with and app store app can't be totally free speech. You get kicked out of the store. See Minds and GAB for that. Minds now has two apps: One in the store which won't show NSFW postings and one downloadable from their website.
That Parler hasn't been kicked out make me wonder if Parler is a honeypot.
I have to admit that I am not technologically inclined enough to install apps outside of an app store. I'll have to learn that soon though. I'm sure it isn't that tough but just like most people I got sucked into taking the easy route not realizing that exactly what you are saying above is what is almost certainly happening to everything in the app stores.