From what I understand, Parler was bankrolled and designed to do exactly what it was ultimately shutdown for. That is, be a concentrated anger-machine-echo-chamber. I'm not angry at the public corporations that have dropped Parler. I'm angry at the people that created Parler in the first place. It was basically a poison pill designed to test our feelings about free speech, designed to provoke. Mission accomplished, buttheads.
I think we'll see the angry mob go end up at less discoverable, but more robust distributed platforms. Which is a shame, because it means eventually, when I say that you can find me on Mastadon/Scuttlebutt/etc, the average person will say, "Oh, you're on that extremist network?"
The benefit to Facebook/Reddit/Twitter is that while Parler is dominating the discussion, they can start cleaning up their most toxic communities.
> From what I understand, Parler was bankrolled and designed to do exactly what it was ultimately shutdown for. That is, be a concentrated anger-machine-echo-chamber.
How is/was Parler different from Facebook in this regard? Facebook makes money on ads, so the longer you stay on their site, the more money they make. One way to get people to stay longer is by encouraging the sorts of posts that gets people riled up.
I'm not accusing Facebook of being complicit in the events of last week, but from personal observation, I see a lot more low-effort, angry posts on Facebook than I do on Twitter or Reddit.
However, Facebook has lines that when crossed result in being moderated. Their moderation system is obviously imperfect and a lot of the time they act too late, but it's there.
Parler was courting all the line-crossers with the promise that there would be no such moderation on their platform. That ended with predictable results.
There was more moderation going on, on Parler, than anywhere else. Users would start out shadow-banned until the moderators approved of their groupthink.
It wasn't just calculated to bring out the worst: it was actively fostering it.
> I think we'll see the angry mob go end up at less discoverable, but more robust distributed platforms. Which is a shame, because it means eventually, when I say that you can find me on Mastadon/Scuttlebutt/etc, the average person will say, "Oh, you're on that extremist network?"
> There’s an unfortunate corollary to this, which is that if you try to create a libertarian paradise, you will attract three deeply virtuous people with a strong committment to the principle of universal freedom, plus millions of scoundrels. Declare that you’re going to stop holding witch hunts, and your coalition is certain to include more than its share of witches.
>I think we'll see the angry mob go end up at less discoverable, but more robust distributed platforms.
Not unless those distributed platforms are as easy to sign up for and use as twitter. I realize that not all the type of people that went to riot at the capitol or stupid, but the fact that they were there proves that most are intellectually lazy at best. Any extra effort to use a social network will completely block most from participating.
I thought that at first, but I realized that I was biased towards the people I personally know who have been fully consumed into the right-wing conspiracyverse (older boomers who never liked computers until the internet was easy).
Ultimately I think you underestimate many of them. They feel persecuted and righteous and have the ability to follow step-by-step directions.
> From what I understand, Parler was bankrolled and designed to do exactly what it was ultimately shutdown for. That is, be a concentrated anger-machine-echo-chamber. I'm not angry at the public corporations that have dropped Parler. I'm angry at the people that created Parler in the first place.
Where did you get this understanding? Seriously. My understanding was that the founders were mostly anti-trump libertarians.
> "My understanding was that the founders were mostly anti-trump libertarians."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parler says "Founder(s): John Matze, Jr., Jared Thomson, Rebekah Mercer" and "conservative political commentator Dan Bongino has said he is an owner."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebekah_Mercer#Donald_Trump says she supports Trump. eg, "Mercer aimed her support at GOP candidate Donald Trump in June 2016 after Cruz lost the primary. Mercer directs the Mercer Family Foundation and served on the Executive Committee of the transition team of United States President-elect Donald Trump"
I think we'll see the angry mob go end up at less discoverable, but more robust distributed platforms. Which is a shame, because it means eventually, when I say that you can find me on Mastadon/Scuttlebutt/etc, the average person will say, "Oh, you're on that extremist network?"
The benefit to Facebook/Reddit/Twitter is that while Parler is dominating the discussion, they can start cleaning up their most toxic communities.