Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as people try to storm the US Capitol in ... [+]
Parler, the social media platform that once courted Kanye West as a buyer and was popular with the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, has been shut down by new ownership, according to an announcement on the company’s website. But the Parler app, which was purchased by Arlington, Virginia-based media company Starboard, is expected to return eventually.
“No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more,” Ryan Coyne, CEO of Starboard, said in a statement published to Parler.
“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,” Coyne continued.
Parler launched in late 2018 as a social media platform that appealed to conservatives who believed they were being censored on mainstream social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. But the site didn’t attract substantial headlines until former President Donald Trump’s efforts on January 6, 2021 to stop the tallying of votes to declare the winner of the 2020 presidential election at the U.S. Capitol.
Many of the rioters that day used Parler to post text, images and video of the insurrection, some of which would later be used in court to prosecute the insurrectionists. Trump has notably not been charged for his role in the insurrection. At least not yet.
Parler became the number one app on Apple’s App Store in the days following the insurrection but was removed due to its popularity with people trying to overthrow the U.S. government.
Parler also tried to attract Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, as a buyer last year but that deal reportedly fell through. West was banned from Twitter before Elon Musk bought the platform in October 2022. Musk allowed West back on the platform but promptly banned him again for posting an anti-semitic image.
As Techcrunch notes, Starboard, which until recently was known as Olympic Media, already owns websites aimed at conservatives like American Wire and BizPac Review.
“Advancements in AI technology, along with the existing code base and other new features, provide an opportunity for Starboard to begin servicing unsupported online communities —building a home for them away from the ad-hoc regulatory hand of platforms that hate them,” Coyne said in a statement.
“The terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed although Starboard expects the deal to be accretive by the end of Q2 2023,” the statement continued.
