by Fan Yang
With the suspense of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, people’s distrust of mainstream media has increased significantly. Being banned by some social media platforms, some Trump supporters and conservatives turn to a new platform called Parler, which claims to be an “unbiased, free speech social platform.” After July 15, 2020, the daily user amount of this platform increases quickly, and the total users almost doubled compared to the end of June.
“Parler” is a French word which means “to speak”. This social media company was founded in 2018 in Henderson, Nevada. On its App Store page, Parler claims itself to be a “non-biased, free speech social media focused on protecting user’s rights”.
In May 2019, at the beginning of Parler’s establishment, the user amount has reached to 100,000. However, the most striking thing is to see its growth on the eve of the presidential election. In the last week of June 2020, it is estimated that Parler has more than 1.5 million daily users. On July 15, the total users of Parler reached 2.8 million, which almost doubled than the end of June.
At present, the celebrities who have entered Parler include Ted Cruz, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Devin Nunes, as well as other famous politicians and politic commenters. Media such as “The Western Journal” and “Zero Hedge” also often contributes content on this platform.
Compared with Twitter (300 million total users) and Facebook (2.6 billion total users), Parler’s rapid increase in users reflects the migration of specific user groups, especially President Trump’s supporters and conservatives. This also reflects people’s tendency to move to an unregulated, free speech social media platform since their speech on mainstream social platforms is blocked.
The contents in Parler are usually commentary, which contradicts the standpoints of mainstream media such as CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, etc., and are often criticized by mainstream media. For example, the Washington Post commented Parlor “has become a Twitter clone for conservatives who have expressed frustration with traditional social media sites”.
Up to today, the user amount of Parler is still growing rapidly. Although the direct reason of its growth is probably the results of the 2020 presidential election, some people regard it may become a trend of social media platform influenced by political polarization in the future.
