Echoes in the Parler

Written November 19, 2020

Over the past four years, how many of us have managed to unfriend, unfollow, or block a friend or family member on social media over political views? It is something that has happened more and more often as we have become more and more polarized over politics. It can be argued that this increases division and puts us in echo chambers of opinion, though proving that one way or another may not be so easy.

Even though this process has been building over the past few years, the second half of this year has taken it to another level with the sudden popularity of a new social media app called Parler. The platform itself is about 2 years old, started in 2018 by John Matze. His claim is that it was founded to be a place dedicated to the “promulgation of free speech”, according to an article in Forbes. However, not only has the platform attracted largely extremely right-leaning users, in that same article Matze admitted to banning “trolls”, who are all young left-leaning people commenting on more conservative posts. Free speech indeed.

Much of the move of conservatives towards Parler happened because they feel they are being censored on the bigger platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Especially after those larger platforms began to crack down on misinformation regarding current events like COVID-19, concerns about mail-in voting, and the results of the election. The recent crackdown on QAnon conspiracy theories has pushed those believing in that onto the new platform. It has attracted a number of popular conservatives as well, including Rudy Guiliani, Eric Trump, the Trump Campaign, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and the NRA. They all claim they are being censored on social media, but, as we have discussed previously, fact checking is not censorship.

All of this leads us into the danger of a platform focusing so intently on one side of a political spectrum. If Parler is so intensely conservative that the founder is banning leftists after claiming to be about free speech, an echo chamber is very quickly being created. The issue here is not about free speech, it is about the spread of mis-information and conspiracy theories. The echo chamber intensifies extremist views, since they tend to be the loudest, and if you are hearing that and nothing else, there is not much reason to question what it says. It makes conspiracy theories like QAnon more likely to grab the attention of someone who might have missed it otherwise. The effect would be the same on the other end of the spectrum if leftists were all moving to a new platform and had a proliferation of conspiracy theories and mis-information to spread, it just is not happening that way right now.

Of course, there is no guarantee that this will happen on Parler to the degree that some people fear. While the number of Parler downloads and accounts has skyrocketed, there has been little mention of a corresponding fall in Twitter and Facebook accounts. For all the sound and fury of leaving those platforms for Parler, it is likely that a majority of those people have picked up a new social media platform without leaving the others they use. People keep up with friends and family on social media more than ever since the start of the pandemic, and that is unlikely to change any time soon.

Another worthwhile question is how long Parler can go before having to enforce some of its own rules. They say content will not be removed or filtered based on the opinions expressed in that content, but they will remove accounts and content promoting crimes and unlawful acts, including terrorism, child pornography, and copyright violations. They will also remove spam. This leaves the question of where the line is drawn for promoting crimes. Does doxxing count? What about talking about committing violence on a particular group? It is inevitable these things will come up for Parler sooner than later, with the sudden rise in membership. How long until they have to tighten rules on what is allowed and what isn’t?

We have yet to see whether the sudden popularity of Parler is something long lasting, or a temporary fad. It is likely the conversation about it will fade away until something big happens, if it does at all. Even so, the concern over such an echo chamber is valid. When the loudest voices start echoing, they tend to drown out everything else.

References:

"Stop the Steal" spreads across the internet after infecting Facebook

Parler

Parler 'free speech' app tops charts in wake of Trump defeat

Was Parler Sold? Who Owns & Created Parler?

Who Owns Parler? Social Media Platform Offers Safe Space for the Far Right

Parler’s Founder Explains Why He Built Trump’s New Favorite Social Media App

Parler, MeWe, Gab gain momentum as conservative social media alternatives in post-Trump age

What is Parler and why are so many conservatives going there?