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Those who subscribe to the Parler social network will first be warmly welcomed: by Camille Wead. The political influencer account is officially verified. “Freedom of expression has never been so enjoyable,” he says in a short video in which the user, using the pseudonym of “Blonde Politician”, explains the most important functions of Parler.
Camille Wead is not only known here and on other platforms for her glossy photos. It receives the highest approval from right-wing populists for the opinion it represents. Because among many photos of herself, the influencer keeps posting fake reports.
Heaven for conspiracy theorists
In Parler (French for “speaking”) there is free travel for fake news. Unlike other social networks, conspiracy theories can be spread here without hindrance. The lies are not marked with warning notices and alleged allegations of election manipulation under slogans like “Stop the Steal” are not cleared. On the contrary: #StopTheSteal was one of Parler’s most used hashtags on Thursday with over 100,000 posts tagged.
The Nevada platform in the US state of Texas has been in existence for two years. But while Parler only had around one million members at the start of the year, it’s now around eight million. About 4.5 million new profiles were registered last Friday alone, Parler boss John Matze announced Tuesday. About five million users are active every day.
Parler is still a long way from the two billion users on Facebook. But with vague rules, frustrated users have to be caught and campaigns like “Erasebook” and “Twexit” have to be promoted. John Matze makes no secret of it. In his letter to members, he said: “The suppression of election information on Facebook and Twitter has acted as a catalyst for many people who have lost their confidence as a result.”
The Corona pandemic guarantees an increase in users
Even in terms of use, Parler recommends that you “don’t curate the feed” because it doesn’t assume you’re qualified to do so. Parler cannot be used only “for a crime, for civil offenses or other illegal actions”. Prohibited content that would be deleted includes contributions on behalf of terrorist organizations, child pornography, and copyright infringement.
The first group of apparently dissatisfied users moved to Parler in June. At that time, the platform doubled the number of users to two million within a week after protest groups were blocked on Facebook directed against the rules of the crown and the Black Lives Matter movement. In recent weeks, Trump supporters in particular have been encouraged to change by Republican politicians like Ted Cruz and conservative moderators like Mark Levin. Twitter previously had Levin’s post flagged with warning notices and blocked.
According to a BBC report, the new members include thousands of supporters of the dangerous QAnon conspiracy movement. Supporters of this cult believe, among other things, that Donald Trump is waging a war against alleged secret elites who allegedly drink the blood of children.
Long loading times, stuttering text entry
Even though Parler looks like a mix of Facebook and Twitter with its news feed, comment feature, and “Votes”, the platform lags behind its role models. Long loading times and stammering text entries make it difficult to use. Permissive content checking also brings with it a flood of spam: if you’re looking for posts with the hashtag #StopTheSteal, you’ll see links to conservative right-wing sites like “Breitbart” as well as numerous sex messages abusing the misplaced hashtag like marketing tool.
While the Parler app has now reached the top of the download charts in the US, the platform has not yet played a major role in Germany. There is hardly any German content there, even on the dominant topic of the corona pandemic there are hardly any articles in German. The preferred platform for conspiracy theories in this country will likely remain the Telegram messaging app for the time being.
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