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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

#61
post #9

Can you speak about Benfords law or post data plots on Parler? Unfortunately you can no longer do that on HN even...

Benford's law only applies to numbers drawn from a distribution with a wide spread over multiple orders of magnitude. So, financial transactions in a big company would show this. Votes in US districts, not so much.

So there, we've spoken about it.

(I think the technical term for the distribution is scale-free but I could be wrong. The law follows reasonably intuitively from thinking about the fractional part of logarithms.)

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

#62
post #37

Do they really want just an echo chamber though? As I understand it they are catering to the far right. Some of the fun they have on FB or Twitter is probably arguing, feeling controversial, etc.

Also because the corporate media in general and the left leaning companies, don’t really respect facts anymore. Entire networks ignore valid stories. And they subtly and aggressive distort and deflect, “There is no explicit evidence of overt corruption and to suggest otherwise is dangerous to our institutions.” I’m a big defender of intelligence agencies but people like John Brennan are widely hated within the Intell…

I have a genuine question: why is it that left-leaning companies dominate media and/or nearly all other walks-of-life? I hear this all the time, but I’d like to know how it came about. I would guess, knowing nothing else, that companies would tend to lean right.

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

#63

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…

> We can already see hints of this in the fact that their terms of service prohibit inciting terrorism or acts of violence – issues that 4chan/etc deal with by allowing it, reducing their reach, and Twitter (attempt) to deal with by banning it, increasing their reach as they provide a "safe space".

Inciting terrorism or acts of violence are typically crimes. If Parler's position is to disallow criminal activity in its TOS, that's one hell of a limiting principle, especially compared to Twitter.

In my (right-wing) experience, Twitter became a toxic place after the "trust and safety" moderation was adopted. Before that, when it was "the free speech wing of the free speech party," users with ill intent could not attempt to get others deplatformed. Today, we still have harassment on Twitter, but with the added threat of user mobs brigading those who have the wrong opinions.

The one point I think is important is that the "blue checkmarks" indeed demand protection from the unwashed masses, and that is why the rules are so selectively enforced and biased. Journalists and public figures are typically of one political persuasion (in the US at least), and sometimes perceived alternative ideas as "violence" or just wrongthink no matter what.

Parler had to avoid being beholden to its highest-value users in this way. If Twitter were not so intolerant, I might use it more. But these days, it feels like you need to walk on eggshells to avoid a shadowban.

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

#65
post #37

Do they really want just an echo chamber though? As I understand it they are catering to the far right. Some of the fun they have on FB or Twitter is probably arguing, feeling controversial, etc.

That’s exactly what a large group of people want. Rather engage in discourse, one side cancels and the other tolerates just outright fabrications as reasonable and meriting discussion.

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

#67
post #37

Do they really want just an echo chamber though? As I understand it they are catering to the far right. Some of the fun they have on FB or Twitter is probably arguing, feeling controversial, etc.

Probably easier to recruit people to conspiracies, white nationalist organizations, anti vaccine propaganda groups, cults or whatever, if there isn't anyone fact checking.

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

#68
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also because the corporate media in general and the left leaning companies, don’t really respect facts anymore. Entire networks ignore valid stories. And they subtly and aggressive distort and deflect, “There is no explicit evidence of overt corruption and to suggest otherwise is dangerous to our institutions.” I’m a big defender of intelligence agencies but people like John Brennan are widely hated within the Intell…

I have a genuine question: why is it that left-leaning companies dominate media and/or nearly all other walks-of-life? I hear this all the time, but I’d like to know how it came about. I would guess, knowing nothing else, that companies would tend to lean right.

Geography has something to do with it. New York and Washington are liberal leaning, and that's where the origins of many of the big media companies lie.

The other piece is likely the motivation to be a journalist, as well as the college experience. Journalism programs tend to have lots of students and staff that want to be seen as "fighting for the little guy", which tends to line up more directly in a liberal context. You can see this pretty clearly by looking at the news stories that have won Pulitzers in the past.

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

#69
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…

Do you have sources for people being banned for those reasons? I have not heard of these cases

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

#70
post #54

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…

> their terms of service prohibit inciting terrorism or acts of violence – issues that 4chan/etc deal with by allowing it 4chan and similar communities typically comply with local laws[1], which means no incitation to violence/terrorism (and if you spent some time there vs. only reading articles about it, you'd see this is enforced).

(footnote missing?)

I'm not entirely convinced by this, since there are a lot of local laws and I don't believe 4chan keeps a big database of which posts are visible in which jurisdictions? Do they have an equivalent of Twitter's is_nazi flag? ( https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/tweet-withhel... / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafgesetzbuch_section_86a )

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