Parler, the self-described “uncancelable free speech platform,” has been sold and shut down while its new owner conducts a “strategic assessment.” The platform will be back eventually, new owner Starboard says.
The Parler website is now a simple page containing only today’s press release announcing the acquisition, which was completed without financial terms being disclosed. “No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more,” the acquisition announcement said, promising a revamp.
“While the Parler app as it is currently constituted will be pulled down from operation to undergo a strategic assessment, we at Starboard see tremendous opportunities across multiple sectors to continue to serve marginalized or even outright censored communities—even extending beyond domestic politics,” the press release said. No timing for a return was mentioned.
Lest we forget, of course, the idea had been to sell the white (power) elephant to Kanye West; at least part of why Candace Owens was cuddling up to the latter was because her husband George Farmer was CEO of Parler by then and the thing was already tanking, and basically they were intending to exploit Kanye’s mental problems by selling it to him (because, obviously, these people are DOGSHIT)… and no one to seems to know what Starboard paid for it, but I imagine it was less than Candy and George were hoping the mentally ill man would give them for it. Alas for them, Kanye went full Hitler and started saying the quiet part out loud, and even they realised this sale would be a bad look even for them and called it off… and now here they are. I don’t know why Parler even bothered existing at all given that Gab was already a thing when they started (and a lot more honest about appealing to the fash), and now that Elon’s running the shitshow at Twitter, the latter is sufficiently friendly to the far-right that even Gab is not exactly necessary any more… And I read that last bit of the press release as implying that Starboard might actually turn Parler’s original intentions on their head, which would be kind of hilarious…
