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

bbc.co.uk

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

#41

I think that all these platforms: Parler, Gab, etc, will end up with one of two fates. They'll either fail to make it big and remain a niche thing for those trolls who enjoy the edginess, like 4chan and its newer alternatives, or... They'll grow big and end up having to deal with "trust and safety" issues when the majority of users on the mainstream end of the spectrum demand protection from those users who would oth…

That doesn’t mean they don’t have a massive potential market. All the centre right people who see Twitter banning people for questioning unlimited immigration, or trans men competing against women in sport, and feel like current social media companies aren’t for them.

I think in this election Twitter definitely, but also Facebook have taken sides. There are a lot of normal, decent right wing people out there, despite the rhetoric of the left, who also wouldn’t mind a social media platform.

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

#42
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obvious and dead horse beaten issue. I’m working on solving this and will report here when I’ve got a prototype. Surprising insights arise from pondering the philosophy of show and tell-specifically how listening is involved in order to “earn” your turn to speak.

> Obvious and dead horse beaten issue. I’m working on solving this and will report here when I’ve got a prototype. Surprising insights arise from pondering the philosophy of show and tell-specifically how listening is involved in order to “earn” your turn to speak. Do you ever look at what you've written and ask yourself: "Would somebody else understand this"? Could you say it again, but using enough words this time?

He thinks this is a commonly noted problem.

He's working on an idea to solve it.

He thinks the answer is requiring others to listen before being able to post.

Do you ever look at what you've written and ask yourself if you would say something so aggressive irl?

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

#43

I think that all these platforms: Parler, Gab, etc, will end up with one of two fates. They'll either fail to make it big and remain a niche thing for those trolls who enjoy the edginess, like 4chan and its newer alternatives, or... They'll grow big and end up having to deal with "trust and safety" issues when the majority of users on the mainstream end of the spectrum demand protection from those users who would oth…

> fail to make it big and remain a niche thing for those trolls who enjoy the edginess, It would fail on those terms as well due to irrelevance: When your political agenda consists of annoying and offending "the other", they need to be present to take offence. If they're not listening, where's the fun? The "echo chamber" aspect takes all the fun out of the performative cruelty.

You are making an assumption that it's primarily about performative cruelty. But I would guess a non-trivial amount of them are just looking for a place where they feel safe talking about what they believe. Every slice of the political/cultural spectrum has it's trolls but they trolls are not representative of the general population.

I may think much of what the other side says is reprehensible but I can generally tell when the speaker is trolling vs just speaking their mind.

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

#44

I think that all these platforms: Parler, Gab, etc, will end up with one of two fates. They'll either fail to make it big and remain a niche thing for those trolls who enjoy the edginess, like 4chan and its newer alternatives, or... They'll grow big and end up having to deal with "trust and safety" issues when the majority of users on the mainstream end of the spectrum demand protection from those users who would oth…

> fail to make it big and remain a niche thing for those trolls who enjoy the edginess, It would fail on those terms as well due to irrelevance: When your political agenda consists of annoying and offending "the other", they need to be present to take offence. If they're not listening, where's the fun? The "echo chamber" aspect takes all the fun out of the performative cruelty.

This analysis seems narrow.

I use various social media sites for various purposes. For example, this one is tech-heavy, with an academic feel.

Facebook is the family album.

Twitter is for engaging 'the other', for all genuine exchange us rare.

LinkedIn is strictly professional.

Parler is more for coordination amongst the echo chamber.

The only losers here are those who feel some quasi-divine urge to control others and shape opinion.

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

#45
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think that Trump being silenced is less of an echo chamber?

You're talking about the current president of the united states as if he's some unknown whistleblower. "silenced". He's getting fact checked.

Indeed. If he has silenced, we wouldn't be hearing about it, would we? And even "fact checked" is somewhere between Orwellian and jargon.

He is being asked to provide evidence for the truth of his claims; and other alternative evidence is being presented alongside what he claims. I would call it "reporting".

(And the claims are nuts. On the radio in the UK, one of his lawyers claimed to have 9000 affidavits from NV voters who said they had turned up to vote in person but a mail-in ballot had been done in their name. 9000! Yet not a single one has been provided to give an interview. I would be worried if 9 people had made such a statement, never mind 9000.)

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

#46

It reminds me of how reddit went through a period of turmoil with claims of censorship and mods acting too aggressively and all the freedom of speech zealots decided to jump ship over to voat.co. I like to check in from time to time to see how that site is doing, and well...it's not pretty. I know parler is pulling in some pretty big names to give it some legitimacy, but it's probably going to succumb to the same pro…

It takes a continuous effort to avoid becoming that which we despise.

Scaling is hard, and brings out authoritarianism.

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

#47
post #41

I think that all these platforms: Parler, Gab, etc, will end up with one of two fates. They'll either fail to make it big and remain a niche thing for those trolls who enjoy the edginess, like 4chan and its newer alternatives, or... They'll grow big and end up having to deal with "trust and safety" issues when the majority of users on the mainstream end of the spectrum demand protection from those users who would oth…

That doesn’t mean they don’t have a massive potential market. All the centre right people who see Twitter banning people for questioning unlimited immigration, or trans men competing against women in sport, and feel like current social media companies aren’t for them. I think in this election Twitter definitely, but also Facebook have taken sides. There are a lot of normal, decent right wing people out there, despite…

My point is that I think those people will end up realising that they need some form of moderation that will likely conflict with the core premise of the platform.

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

#48
post #39
post #20

Ominous that the social networks are splitting along these lines

I don't think it's ominous. Different platforms serve different interests and demographics - some people want the barely moderated edgelord chaos of 4chan, most people don't.

What's ominous is the growing media separation between the two political sides leading to ever-increasing difference in worldviews. How can we negotiate and compromise when viewpoints are so diametrically opposed that no middle-ground can be made?

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

#49
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know that this social network is an echo chamber?

Their retweet option is rather hilariously called the echo button. I’m not sure if it’s self-aware or not.

Isn't that a good thing? People need to become aware about how retweets do turn Twitter into an echochamber.

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

#50
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other words, no we can't discuss that here and should have those conversations on other sites....ok...

That isn't what the comment you are replying to said. It said that before you claim that thing X and thing Y are related, take a look at this page that goes through the claims and debunks them. If the answers on that page are mistaken and it is relevant to a topic on HN then it seems logical (to me) that you could discuss it here (but unfounded political allegations should be off-topic in most HN chats in my opinion)…

Unfortunately links to other pages / data-scientist who disagree with above are "flagged".
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