Definitely, the period is difficult for employees in the world of tech.
After behemoths like Meta and Twitter among many others, it is indeed the turn of Parler, an ultra-conservative social network for some or a haunt of nazillons for others, to lay off a large part of its employees. Snubbed by figures like Trump, and largely inaccessible on the most used application stores, it is difficult to see how Parler could rebound today.
What is Talk?
It’s 2018, when Donald Trump is in the middle of a media battle against social networks mainstream, that Parler was born. With a simple promise: total freedom of expression for its members, and an almost non-existent moderation team. Clearly aimed at supporters of the 45e President of the United States and all that the USA has of conspirators and white supremacists, Parler was initially a great success. Thus, during the 2020 presidential campaign, it registers up to 7,000 new members every minute. But harder was the fall.
On January 6, 2021, in fact, supporters of the now former Republican president attacked the capitol to try to prevent the validation of Joe Biden’s election. Realizing their responsibility, the tech giants are finally taking action: Trump is banned almost everywhere, and Apple and Google are suspending Talking from their stores, which were allegedly used by rioters to organize. The decline would not stop there.
2022, a catastrophic year for Parler
Four months later, Parler was back on the App Store after significantly overhauling its moderation policy, but maybe it was already too late. Because Parler is far from being the only “conservative” social network to have emerged since. And the invisible hand of the market gave it a nice slap: in 2022, the competition is far ahead. Donald Trump, to begin with, is now present on only one platform of the type, Truth Social, of which he owns the majority of shares and with which he has a non-competition clause. Posting on Parler would mean one more lawsuit to the collection of whoever is running for 2024.
Last September, Parliament Technologies, which owns Parler, tried to sell it, which allowed potential buyers to take a closer look at its figures: the site now has less than 50,000 active users. A personality also expressed his wish to acquire the platform, Kanye West, who had just been fired from almost everywhere for his anti-Semitic attacks. In a rare access of lucidity, he himself ended up withdrawing from deal.
Which brings us to early 2023. Over the past few weeks, Parler has chosen to emulate the greats by laying off 75% of the company’s employees and executives. Among them, the public relations department, which therefore did not communicate on the movement.
Source : The Verge
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