Parler CEO says he was fired by board • Hacker News Board

Re: Parler CEO says he was fired by board

#451

Post by syshum » Thu, Feb 04, 2021, 4:01 PM UTC

Applejinx wrote: post #442

syshum wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Parler positioned itself as less radical than Gab .. How can 4chan, Gab, and the even darker parts of the internet manage to persist online Some of it has do with the fact that when it comes to political speech you can not be moderate. if you do you fall lock step in with one of the extreme's you painted by both extremes as the other... For example many times, in the same conversation or talking about the same top…

You might consider the idea that Parler 'positioned' itself and was not in the least what it claimed itself to be. Some folks lie. Some platforms lie. If 'I promise I don't want to kill you' becomes the logical Kryptonite to get you out of any sort of jam, then it becomes nothing more than an exploit useful to people who want to kill you. All they have to do is say, 'no, you see, I'm telling you I don't and so you ha…

>>Anyone trying really hard to obfuscate that is probably Parler-like themselves.

Thank you for proving my point.... If I do not agree with you then clearly I am alt-right extremist..

Sigh... there really is not point discussing politics in a rational way anymore. This is how extremism persists.

Re: Parler CEO says he was fired by board

#452

Post by ashtonkem » Thu, Feb 04, 2021, 4:11 PM UTC

8note wrote: post #273

echelon wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder whose side the FSF would take. Amazon shouldn't be making these decisions, and certainly not without giving the other party ample time to make other arrangements. This should have been litigated in court prior to taking deplatforming actions. Imagine if Amazon was a Chinese company and Parler hosted information about the plight of the Uyghur people. Community websites have the right to enforce rules. I'm not…

I'd imagine that the FSF would say parler should be using free software for their hosting, so that they can switch to local hosting if they want Their position is usually to not rely on non free software

Parler was, by the by. The issue is that their hardware requirements were bonkers, so finding a new host capable of giving them a few hundred servers and dedicated 10G internal network capacity wasn’t trivial.

Re: Parler CEO says he was fired by board

#453

Post by ashtonkem » Thu, Feb 04, 2021, 4:12 PM UTC

jjav wrote: post #306

echelon wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At their size, they sure seem like it. What happens when AWS and Azure design their own silicon, outstrip other hosting providers, and then become the only hosts on the internet? Are they common carriers then?

This is a valid thought experiment to consider. I'm old enough that racking my own boxes and hosting everything myself is both natural and easy (and cheaper and faster). But working with plenty of young developers, most don't have any exposure or interest in setting up anything other than AWS services tied together. So like it or not (I don't) we're rushing towards a world where AWS (maaybe GCP, mostly not) is the on…

That’s not true though.

By volume, GoDaddy is actually a bigger host than AWS by a factor of 2.

The HN crowd vastly overestimates how big AWS is compared to less sexy options.

Re: Parler CEO says he was fired by board

#454

Post by Applejinx » Thu, Feb 04, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

minsc__and__boo wrote: post #329

redwood wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you realize who she is? If she's embarrassed by anything it's that he hasn't brought the site back to glory yet

I'm convinced that Parler was a data grab. They ran the numbers and figured it would be cheaper to run a social media platform to attract their target constituents rather than try to scrape it (like they did with Cambridge Analytica) or attempt to buy it. Hence the ID requirements.

No, it was ideological, but also drew the attention and support of state actors not from THIS country. Like with Cambridge Analytica, in fact.

The data grab aspect serves as a means of control and access into a LOT of American citizens who've given up their identities in order to serve an ideological purpose. They might not have been clear on exactly who was looking to overthrow the USA, but by the time they signed on they'd decided for their own reasons that was what they wanted, so it's not as much a data grab as a pipeline for terrorism.

As much as the data is valuable, control of the people is more valuable.

Re: Parler CEO says he was fired by board

#455

Post by Applejinx » Thu, Feb 04, 2021, 4:30 PM UTC

syshum wrote: post #451

Applejinx wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might consider the idea that Parler 'positioned' itself and was not in the least what it claimed itself to be. Some folks lie. Some platforms lie. If 'I promise I don't want to kill you' becomes the logical Kryptonite to get you out of any sort of jam, then it becomes nothing more than an exploit useful to people who want to kill you. All they have to do is say, 'no, you see, I'm telling you I don't and so you ha…

>>Anyone trying really hard to obfuscate that is probably Parler-like themselves. Thank you for proving my point.... If I do not agree with you then clearly I am alt-right extremist.. Sigh... there really is not point discussing politics in a rational way anymore. This is how extremism persists.

Ya know, if that's the banner you want to march under… then so be it.

Nazis lie, and especially love to argue that 'oh, if you don't take me at face value and accept my word then that means I'm a nazi! You know you are just FORCING me to be a nazi, right? You're the real nazi, and when the revolution comes I won't be a bit sorry to gas you, because you're a MEANIE!'

So, is that what you are, or not? :) How not alt-right extremist are you, and can you prove it in any way, or is your only (rapidly provided!) argument 'you're doubting my word, and that means you're the real extremist and there's no point talking to you because you're the real extremist and everybody else should shun you, you irrational person!'

Is that not what you are? You're explicitly making that argument. I'm asserting that is a tainted argument and doubling down that I mistrust your arguments because this is how you're making them.

Re: Parler CEO says he was fired by board

#456

Post by manquer » Thu, Feb 04, 2021, 4:32 PM UTC

robin_reala wrote: post #373

skynet-9000 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true. Apple can't get rid of Facebook or Google Maps, no matter how much they hate them, but they can easily get rid of pesky startups while claiming to be standing on principles. Not much of a moral victory there, though! (even if you believe they were right to do so, which I do not.)

Pre-Fortnite-sage I wouldn’t have been so sure, but they had 116m users at that point and were still banned. Obviously that’s still an order of magnitude smaller, but…

Also Fortnite is not utility application it lot easier to ban a game. It is much harder for say Google Maps, while we can discuss the "utility" of the Facebook app, even with facebook main, plenty of people use it as critical communication tool.

Re: Parler CEO says he was fired by board

#457

Post by skinnymuch » Thu, Feb 04, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

throwawaysea wrote: post #246

skinnymuch wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make such great points! How can any be argued? Also. Insurrection and coup are not the same thing. It was an insurrection. Yea those big tech doing such far left progressive ideals like paying no taxes, dodging all sorts of moral issues, working with another to not poach and lower income. I can’t tell if AOC and Bernie dont run big tech.

How was “it” an insurrection? What is even “it”? Are you talking about the entire group that heard Trump’s speech and marched to the Capitol? Because if so then the vast majority protested peacefully outside the barriers and broke no laws. Are you talking about the ones that trespassed onto the Capitol, because the vast majority broke no laws that leftist groups haven’t in recent years in their own illegal invasions…

You didn't mention anything about how big tech is far left progressive. Yet most of what we've seen is at best ammoral behavior most of the time with some neoliberalism and pure immoral ruthless greed.

I believe you meant to say big tech is neoliberal. If so, I agree. I don't use neoliberal in a positive light. I think it's a net negative. Neoliberals are anything but progressive and in it to truly help society in my opinion. Probably the one common ground we can agree on.

Re: Parler CEO says he was fired by board

#458

Post by AntiImperialist » Thu, Feb 04, 2021, 4:35 PM UTC

molbioguy wrote: post #443

Slightly off-topic, but I think it's important to recognize that Parler was placed in the unfair position of having to perfect it's moderation systems in a very short time as their user base ramped up exponentially. Twitter et al had a lot of time to work out their issues and their moderation strategy has 'evolved' substantially over time (and it is still not optimal). I've not seen any messages from Parler defiantly…

Only boneheaded libtards think that shutting down Parler was done for any other reason that for political one.

Re: Parler CEO says he was fired by board

#459

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Thu, Feb 04, 2021, 4:42 PM UTC

rodgerd wrote: post #353

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Parler praises "free speech" they're really just using that as a cover for running a cheap Twitter clone with no investment in moderation. They exist to extract profit with minimum overhead.

No, it's a cover they're using for pushing the extreme-right agenda of the Mercer family (Brietbart, Cambridge Analytica, etc).

The wealthy use this tactic to install their politicians. There aren't enough rich people to win elections on their own so they find easily manipulated groups to do their bidding. Stirring up the rabble with identity politics let's them mold governance in their favor. It creates a nice feedback loop of discontent when the puppets always enact policies that strengthen the ire of the base.

Re: Parler CEO says he was fired by board

#460

Post by jariel » Thu, Feb 04, 2021, 4:42 PM UTC

gregmac wrote: post #229

skynet-9000 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who does deeply believe in and care about free speech (from all parties), I could not be in deeper agreement with you. (for non-native English speakers: I fully agree). Parler should not have been de-platformed. That was a clearly partisan act, and the truth would have come out shortly about the company's total lack of care for its users. Say what you will about Gab, but they never pulled any of those stun…

> Parler should not have been de-platformed With this statement you are implying one of two things: * You are very unhappy with AWS for de-platforming them * You think AWS should not have been allowed to do so If it's the first one, well, you are free to treat that however you like. Stop using AWS yourself, especially if you now fear AWS will do this to you. Don't do business with other companies that use AWS -- you…

If AT&T started banning any traffic: emails, websites etc. that 'talked poorly about AT&T' then it would be a breach of net neutrality, right? And totally unacceptable.

Twitter and Partler are content platforms, AWS is not.

They are an infrastructure, not a content company and there is a material difference.

Ford, GM and Telsa collectively refusing to sell to XYZ customers for whatever reasons gets out of hand very quickly.

'You can just use another service' generally doesn't work as an argument in oligarchic situations. If AWS style services were as varied as grocery stores, maybe, but they are not.