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Parler Shuts Down As New Owner Says Conservative Platform Needs Big Revamp (arstechnica.com) 214

Posted by BeauHD from the going-to-take-a-breath-of-fresh-air dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Parler, the self-described "uncancelable free speech platform," has been sold and shut down while its new owner conducts a "strategic assessment." The platform will be back eventually, new owner Starboard says. The Parler website is now a simple page containing only today's press release announcing the acquisition, which was completed without financial terms being disclosed. "No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more," the acquisition announcement said, promising a revamp.

"While the Parler app as it is currently constituted will be pulled down from operation to undergo a strategic assessment, we at Starboard see tremendous opportunities across multiple sectors to continue to serve marginalized or even outright censored communities -- even extending beyond domestic politics," the press release said. No timing for a return was mentioned. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Starboard founder and CEO Ryan Coyne said that Parler is "going to take a breath of fresh air." Ars notes that Starboard was formerly called Olympic Media and owns conservative news sites American Wire News and BizPac Review.

The previous owner, Parlement Technologies, tried to strike a deal to sell to Ye (formerly Kanye West) in mid-October but canceled the deal after Ye praised Hitler and Nazis. The company laid off a majority of its staff earlier this year.
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Parler Shuts Down As New Owner Says Conservative Platform Needs Big Revamp More

Parler Shuts Down As New Owner Says Conservative Platform Needs Big Revamp

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  • Nazi Twitter? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by AndrewZX ( 9173721 )
    No business case for a nazi twitter?? Whaaat? Because the existing twitter is turning into a nazi twitter???

    • Re:Nazi Twitter? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14, 2023 @06:20PM (#63450476)
      Republicans scream constantly about "censorship" on all the social media platforms, but every attempt to create something specifically for conservatives has failed spectacularly. Turns out that Republicunts don't actually give half a fuck about "free speech", they just like to bitch and complain about nonexistent "censorship".

      • Re:Nazi Twitter? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Baloo Uriza ( 1582831 ) <baloo@ursamundi.org> on Friday April 14, 2023 @07:10PM (#63450582) Homepage Journal
        Never mind moderation (or, as these antiamerican terrorists call it, censorship) is literally the only reason for platforms to exist in the first place. Left without moderation, the internet is way too subject to the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory to be particularly usable. The fact that Usenet flaming out after AOL shit the pool isn't taught in schools at this point is kind of a failure of education. January 6 was a direct result of the September That Never Ended.

      • Republicans love censorship. https://www.wired.com/story/te... [wired.com]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Republicans scream constantly about "censorship" on all the social media platforms, but every attempt to create something specifically for conservatives has failed spectacularly. Turns out that Republicunts don't actually give half a fuck about "free speech", they just like to bitch and complain about nonexistent "censorship".

        Republicans call for the government to investigate Facebook, Apple, Google, Twitter, etc. for censorship.

        Now that Twitter has violated a bunch of other laws and become "friendly", thos [arstechnica.com]

    • No business case for a nazi twitter?? Whaaat? Because the existing twitter is turning into a nazi twitter???

      Nor is there a business case for a dating site for nazis [rawstory.com], or an "anti-woke" bank [imgur.com].

    • I get it, it's very unsettling when someone breaks your little echo chamber, right?

  • Fail (Score:2, Insightful)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 )

    They don't have the right-wing faux-centrist Elon Musk to keep saying provocative things to prop them up at the price of starting a civil war and maybe even WWIII. Dude claims to be a centrist but never posts any centrist stuff. Always right wing anti-trans, anti-liberal, bad stuff a random black guy does to whites but never posts when the opposite happens, a missouri legislator openly endorses pedophile level stuff and he not only doesn't retweet it but actively suppresses it on his platform. Never critici

    • They call it 'controlling the narrative', the effectiveness remains to be seen.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Baloo Uriza ( 1582831 )
        You sure about that? Joseph McCarthy might be dead but we're still stuck with three parties, all firmly right of center, in the US, and no moderate or left of center parties that have ballot access in all 50 states.

        • All 3 parties? Which 3 is that? We are talking about the US, which only has 2 real parties, yes?

          Both parties are right wing... because you're an extreme socialist or card carrying g true red communist?

          • Libertarians are also on the ballot in all 50 states. Bernie Sanders and AOC are center-left. Biden is mid-right, about on par with the Tories in the UK.

            • Libertarians are very low in political power. Yes, there are Republicans claiming to be libertarian but note that it's a lower-case L and they don't actually hold real Libertarian values. Granted, they are ahead of the Greens. Mostly what is happening is that anything but the top two parties naturally loser - you need 50%+1 votes to get a representative into office. Even if 33% of the country voted for a particular party they might still end up with 0 representatives, federal, state, or local. A few ti

              • Libertarians are very low in political power. Yes, there are Republicans claiming to be libertarian but note that it's a lower-case L and they don't actually hold real Libertarian values.

                Libertarians are just Republicans that don't hide that they're in favor of legalized marijuana and a reprehensibly low age of consent. "Freedom for me, but not for you".

                Granted, they are ahead of the Greens.

                Doesn't matter, they're not on the ballot in this state. Furthest left party on the ballot in all 50 states is the solidly conservative Democrats.

                • Libertarians are for low government control over both economic and social activities. Republicans are very much pro control over social activities. So they only agree somewhat on the economic side. Even then, most Libertarians I know seemed to highly dislike Trump's use of tariffs, but then Trump really isn't a classic Republican or conservative either.

                  There are quite a lot of Libertarians that don't think Ron Paul was really Libertarian.

        • Centrist is usually relative to the country it's in. And even if left or right of center relative to the rest of the world it tends to be the moderate faction willing to listen to alternatives, accept pragmatism, and get down to the actual business of governing instead of politicking.

          It's true, we don't have a solid labor party in the US, that's sort of died out. America has squelched labor/socialist movements from the start, too fearful of commies maybe but probably more fearful of having to raise wages.

          • Centrist is usually relative to the country it's in.

            No. But convincing people that this is the case is how the far right comes to have a monopoly on power. We saw it in the Weimar Republic and Italy. Thanks to the legacy of McCarthyism, we're seeing it in America right now. The UK's been dealing with that as well starting a couple years before the Brexit vote. That's how you get our current situation with Libertarians and Republicans pulling to the right and Democrats preventing movement to the left.

  • Time off to focus (Score:5, Insightful)

    by algaeman ( 600564 ) on Friday April 14, 2023 @06:06PM (#63450450)
    Time off to focus on their core business of providing a hidden place for terrorists to congregate and plan.
  • Starboard, formerly Olympic Media, founded in 2018 houses conservative-leaning platforms American Wire and BizPac Review. It plans to service "unsupported online communities" and build a home for them "away from the ad-hoc regulatory hand of platforms that hate them."

    Not sure why conservatives need to be hated. I doubt most even knew what Parler was, much less take time to go after them with pitchforks.

    Of course people have a reason to fear them. If a man wants to put on a dress, he should not have to

  • ...and left him broke with the dungheap. Put like with like.

    • Fits in with "We're letting the Saudi's buy all the American companies. Well, all the shit ones".

  • Promoting terrorism (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Baloo Uriza ( 1582831 ) <baloo@ursamundi.org> on Friday April 14, 2023 @06:17PM (#63450466) Homepage Journal

    So, Parler, a safe space for conservatives, a group that calls itself domestic terrorists against the US, and doesn't understand that "woke" simply means "being conscious of people's immutable attributes and not picking on people for things they can't change", is going under? Nothing of value was lost. And the first thing they've done that isn't antiamerican.

    Also, they should consider themselves lucky, as site operators, that they're not getting run up on the RICO act, terrorism or seditious conspiracy charges after Jan 6.

  • I'm not sure who needs to hear this, but definitely a lot of people running businesses in America today!

    Historically, businesses stayed away from taking any official political positions on issues. It runs counter to the purpose of a free-market business venture, really. You want to maximize your sales and customer-base! Politics is, by nature, divisive. At any given time, a number not too far from HALF of the nation's population will be against whatever you claim to support, politically. So why upset that

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbialac ( 320955 )
      It wasn't long ago that the rule was, "Never talk about religion and politics at work."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tragedy ( 27079 )

      Historically, businesses stayed away from taking any official political positions on issues.

      I would have to say that slavery and segregation are some pretty glaring counterexamples to that position just off the top of my head. Maybe you should modify that with an exception for political positions that are not the prevailing ones in the particular market where the business operates? If enough of the public is either for that political position or callously indifferent, adopting it as an official position is probably beneficial to a business, regardless of how terrible it is.

  • Parler Shuts Down As New Owner Says Conservative Platform Needs Big Revamp

    Something more cutting-edge, maybe less -- conservative?

  • So when did "Free Speech" = "Conservative" (Score:3, Interesting)

    by HotNeedleOfInquiry ( 598897 ) on Friday April 14, 2023 @06:38PM (#63450514)
    I'm old enough to remember hippies protesting *FOR* free speech.

    • Re:So when did "Free Speech" = "Conservative" (Score:5, Informative)

      by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Friday April 14, 2023 @06:53PM (#63450560) Journal

      So when did "Free Speech" = "Conservative"

      It's a thing conservatives made up to try and convince people of something counter to reality.

    • As soon as they got enough control their principles failed them and they became just as bad as they people they sought to replace. Eventually the pendulum will swing back the other way and the conservatives presently paying lip service to idea will find those lips sealed as suddenly slant censorious in turn. Everyone protests against the man up until they become the man, or as Pete Townsend put it, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

    • Re:So when did "Free Speech" = "Conservative" (Score:4, Funny)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Friday April 14, 2023 @07:14PM (#63450600)

      I was always looking forward to Bernie Sanders and AOC having accounts on Parler. I’d give them 24 hours before the perma ban.

    • Hippies are still for free speech. Conservatives are only interested in hate speech not having social consequences.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

      I'm old enough to remember hippies protesting *FOR* free speech.

      I live in the present day enough to see "patriotic americans" both protesting for free speech and cheering on States that expressly seek to punish those seeking to exercise it (Disney, DEI advocates, drag performers).

      At least "the hippies" took a few decades to gradually change their views in your scenario. The modern right merely says "what inconsistency are you talking about?"

      • Disney, DEI advocates and drag performers are not for free speech. They are for their own free speech. Everyone else needs to be shutdown.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by narcc ( 412956 )

          Every accusation really is a confession with you people, isn't it? Unlike you, of course, I can actually support my claims:

          You want "freedom of speech" to mean "freedom from consequences", but only for right-wing bigots. For example, your little "go woke, go broke" slogan is "cancel culture" -- the very thing you've been crying about for years!

          The hypocrisy is staggering. At the same time you freaks are trying to ban boycotts [theatlantic.com] you're boycotting shitty beer for being "woke". [vox.com]

      • Please don't insult Americans by implying Republicans are patriotic. They've gone out of their way to call themselves antiamerican domestic terrorists. When someone makes that claim about themselves like it's a good thing, it's a good idea to take it at face value.

    • "So when did "Free Speech" = "Conservative."

      It never has. Right-wingers just get off on being Orwellian ghouls, as always.

      Like the "family values" they talk about, in the Chris Hansen sense. Or the "patriotism" in their Russian bank accounts.

      Bunch of little Jeffrey Dahmers, the lot of them.

  • Makes sense (Score:3)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Friday April 14, 2023 @06:59PM (#63450568)

    What good is a platform if it doesn't allow you to cultivate your persecution complex?

  • "Conservative" doesn't mean what the author thinks it means.

    There is no left-wing bias in the USA because there is no left-wing, only different degrees of extremism & exceptionalism

    They're not Nazis either. The Nazis were ruthlessly efficient. That's definitely *not* something we can say about American governance.

    As usual, the real danger is from overly rich & powerful individuals & corporations, as they were in the 1930s, subverting democracy for their own ends & to serve their own pe
  • They like to cut the faces off of things they envy and wear them as horrific mockery-masks. Such is their relationship with "free speech."

    They literally are responsible for the least violently evil and un-free political movement in human history, and sympathized it worldwide (even to this day). The fact that they don't refer to themselves as "ashamed" rather than "conservative" is proof that they're evil.
  • Need to purge ze librul zat zey have failed to purge enough of.

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