The IT Nerd

Well, it’s Monday morning and Parler no longer exists. If you try to go to Parler.com, you get this:

And I think it is safe to say that barring a major change in attitude from those who run Parler, it is likely not going to be seen on the Internet again. Thus R.I.P. Parler.

Now say hello to Gab. Another alternative social network aimed at the same user base as Parler. And they are making some really bold claims:

Andrew Torba, a conservative programmer who launched the site in 2016, said in a post on Monday that his service had enjoyed a wave of new users and that his team added 10 new servers to cope with demand resulting from the sudden influx.

The apparent surge, which has not been independently verified, came as the rival “free speech” site Parler was shut down by Apple, Google and Amazon Web Services (AWS) for failing to moderate user content with the potential to incite hate or violence.

Torba said in a video posted to the Gab Twitter account on Monday that his site was left with an opportunity to “export the First Amendment to billions of people around the world who do not have that luxury,” noting he expects government opposition.

He said: “We are adding 600,000 users every day and that number is probably going to continue compounding, it may reach a million a day over the next couple of days.”

Here’s the problem for Gab. They have the same base of users as Parler. And their view on moderating content is the same as Parler. Which means that they will likely run into the same issues as Parler. In fact it already has:

Like Parler, which launched with funding from Republican donor Rebecca Mercer, Gab was pitched as being light on moderation—unlike Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

That meant it became a home for extremism, and in October 2018 Gab found itself in a similar situation to Parler as hosting services and payment providers cut ties after a man accused of killing 11 people in a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, Robert Bowers, was found to have been a member.

Gab returned to the web in November 2018. While it says users should not “unlawfully threaten” or “incite imminent lawless action,” its focus remains on not punishing users for “exercising their God-given right to speak freely,” according to the guidelines.

Call it a hunch, but I think that in short order we may see something similar play out here. Because to attract users who used to use Parler, they have to be like Parler. Which means they will quickly be in the crosshairs of anyone they depend on to make their business work. That is unless they do what Parler was unwilling to do which is moderate content. Which I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that they won’t. Which means that I will be shortly writing about Gab being erased off the Internet.

This entry was posted on January 11, 2021 at 8:40 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Gab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.