Parler squeezed as Trump seeks newonlinemegaphone,
PresidentDonald BOSTON—
Trump has been kicked offff of most mainstream social media platforms following his supporters’ siege on the U.S. Capitol. But it remains to be seen howfast orwhere— if anywhere on the internet he will be able to reach his followers.
The far right-friendly Parler had been the leading candidate, at least until Google and Apple removed it fromtheir app stores and Amazon decided to boot it offff its web hosting service bymidnight Pacifific time on Sunday.
Parler’s CEO said that could knock it offline for a week, though that might prove optimistic. Andeven if it fifinds a friendlierweb-hosting service, without a smartphone app, it’s hard to imagine Parler gaining mainstream success.
The 2-year-old magnet for the far right claims more
than12 millionusers, though mobile app analytics firm Sensor Tower puts the number at 10million worldwide, with 8 million in the U.S. That’s a fraction of the 89 millionfollowers Trumphad on Twitter.
Still, Parlermightbeattractive to Trumpsince it’swhere his sons Eric and Don Jr. are already active. Parler hit headwinds, though, on
Friday as Google yanked its smartphoneappfromitsapp store for allowing postings that seek “to incite ongoing violence in the U.S.” Apple followed suit on Saturday evening after giving Parler 24 hours to address complaints it was being used to “plan and facilitate yet further illegal anddangerous activities.” Public safety issues will need to be resolved before it is restored, Apple said.
A message seeking comment from Parler was sent Sundayonwhether the company plans to change itspoliciesandenforcementaround these issues.
Amazon struck another blow Saturday, informing Parler it would need to look for a new web-hosting service effffffffffffective midnight Sunday. It reminded Parler in a letter, fifirst reported byBuzzfeed, that it had informed it in the past few weeks of 98 examples of posts “that clearly encourage and incite violence” and said the platform“poses a very real risk to public safety.”
Parler CEO John Matze decried the punishments as “a coordinated attack by the tech giants to kill competition in themarketplace. We were too successful too fast,” he said in a Saturday night post, saying itwas possibleParlerwouldbeunavailable for up to a week “as we rebuild from scratch.”