parler chat

=reb mercer $hann and ingram said defect?=<div>=</div><div>canceled [heh] in intr of both </div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/12/parler-termination-kanye-west-purchase/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/12/parler-termination-kanye-west-purchase/</a></div><div>
</div><div>=</div><div><div></div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/here-are-conspiracy-theories-about-dominion-and-2020-election-fox-news-maria-bartiromo">https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/here-are-conspiracy-theories-about-dominion-and-2020-election-fox-news-maria-bartiromo</a></div><div>
</div><div><div>many lnx some vids twts</div><div>
</div><div>A recently published brief from Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News shows Fox executives repeatedly called out anchor Maria Bartiromo, implausibly still considered a straight news anchor by the network, for amplifying election fraud lies on right-wing social media platform Parler. Media Matters has identified at least 12 of these posts from the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election, at least three of which appear to specifically defame Dominion.</div><div>
</div><div>In March 2021, Dominion filed a defamation suit against Fox News and its parent company for the false claims the network pushed after the election. Those false claims were extensive: In the two-week period after Fox News declared Joe Biden the president-elect, the network questioned the results of the election or pushed conspiracy theories about it almost 800 times, including by using Dominion as a scapegoat. </div><div>
</div><div>Dominion’s brief calling for a summary judgment in its favor, released to the public last week, reveals that the network knew it was pushing false claims about Dominion’s voting machines. As Dominion detailed in the filing, “Literally dozens of people with editorial responsibility—from the top of the organization to the producers of specific shows to the hosts themselves—acted with actual malice.” This includes Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo, whom the filing calls out for amplifying baseless attacks against Dominion both on her show and across social media. </div><div>
</div><div>The filing also reveals that Fox executive Gary Schreier and Fox Business News President Lauren Petterson lamented that Bartiromo “sometimes” amplified baseless conspiracy theories.</div><div>
</div><div>“On November 7, [Petterson] received an alert that there was a coordinated effort on 4chan to spread claims that Dominion voting systems were used to commit fraud… The next day, Gary Schreier warned Petterson that Bartiromo ‘has gop conspiracy theorists in her ear and they use her for their message sometimes.’”</div><div>
</div><div>The filing also mentions that after Bartiromo announced that she would be leaving Twitter for the far-right social media platform Parler, “Petterson commented to Schreier, ‘How about get off social all together.’ Schreier responded, ‘I mean if you say crazy wrong shit on Parler is that better just because Parler won’t flag you?’”</div><div>
</div><div>Here are some of the posts that Bartiromo shared on Parler amplifying baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election: </div><div>
</div><div>Dominion’s brief references several instances in which Bartiromo spread election lies on Parler</div><div>The filing mentions that on November 5, Bartiromo “posted unfounded allegations of vote ‘dump[s]’ on social media,” prompting Fox host Brett Baier to alert Bill Sammon, the network’s then Washington bureau chief, “We have to prevent this stuff…We need to fact check.” </div><div>
</div><div>Maria Bartiromo Parler Post </div><div>Maria Bortiromo Parler Post claiming late night vote drop </div><div>
</div><div>The filing details that when Bartiromo hosted Trump lawyer Sidney Powell on her show on November 8, 2020, she planned to ask about “voting irregularities” and “Bartiromo knew Powell would respond with conspiracy theories about Dominion.” The day before, Powell had sent Bartiromo an email titled “Election Fraud Info” that Powell had “received from a 'source' which the author herself describes as ‘pretty wackadoodle.’” Bartiromo reportedly described the email as “kooky” and “nonsense.” From the filing:</div><div>
</div><div>“Bartiromo … never reported on the existence of this email. Nor did Bartiromo tell her viewers about the source of Powell’s claims or that Trump’s own Senior Advisor and son-in-law rejected the allegations as conspiracy theories. While the claims were laughable on their face, Bartiromo gave them credibility. As Tucker Carlson texted that night, “[t]he software shit is absurd.…Half our viewers have seen the Maria clip.”</div><div>
</div><div>Bartiromo also promoted lies from Powell on Parler, including by sharing a November 15 clip from Sunday Morning Futures featuring Powell claiming that “the evidence is coming in so fast” she 'can't even process it all.'”</div><div>
</div><div>Maria Bartiromo promoting her interview with Sydney Powell on Parler</div><div>
</div><div>The filing also mentions that on November 12, “Schreier notified Petterson and others that Dobbs and Giuliani had ‘[s]poke about servers for the voting machines in foreign country’ on air, but that this claim had not been verified.” (Former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs' program was cancelled in February 2021, days after he was named in a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Smartmatic, another election software company targeted by Fox.) That same day, Schreier had been warned that, per the filing, Bartiromo was “sharing conspiracy theories about Dominion on Parler, to which he responded ‘I don’t know why she invites this.’”</div><div>
</div><div>Maria Bortiromo Parler Post saying she'll talk about supposed dominion rigging on her show</div><div>Maria Bortiromo Parler Post claiming Venezuela interfered in the election</div><div>
</div><div>Bartiromo continued to attack Dominion on November 17, sharing a Gateway Pundit article alleging “Mass Dumps” of votes “for Biden” on Parler, in addition to promoting her segment featuring election fraud claims from disgraced Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.</div><div>
</div><div>Maria Bortiromo Parler Post claiming dominion voting machines were seized in Europe</div><div>Maria Bartiromo claiming experts found massive fraud in michigans election</div><div>Maria Bartiromo posts on Parler about her interview with Rudy Giuliani</div><div>
</div><div>Beyond the posts referenced in Dominion’s filing, Bartiromo spread other election-related lies on Parler in the weeks surrounding the 2020 election.</div><div>
</div><div>For example, Bartimoro pushed the debunked claim that dead people had voted by the thousands in Michigan. She also shared content from the Gateway Pundit alleging that a “voter fraud training” was held in the state: </div><div>
</div><div>Maria Bartiromo posts on Parler about dead people supposedly voting in 2020</div><div>Maria Bartiromo sharing an article alleging voter fraud trainings in detroit</div><div>Bartimoro additionally implied that there was cheating during the election and might be during Georgia's U.S. Senate runoff election, and she shared content casting doubts about election integrity:...</div></div><div>=</div></div>=politico...Bongino, a Queens native, celebrated the victory by praising his followers on Parler for giving “a collective middle finger” to Twitter and the rest of Big Tech — a favorite foil. Then he resumed his usual posting: Dozens of links that drive either to his show or to stories aggregated by his website, BonginoReport.com, that he set up as an alternative to the popular Drudge Report, which Bongino has repeatedly said “sold us out” by catering too much to moderates and liberals and not enough to Trump’s base.<div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">While the 45-year-old Bongino lacks the widespread clout of Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh, he has found a lucrative role to play in the increasingly segregated, angry internet, where different audiences rarely interact, or even see each other’s content.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Bongino’s popularity has surprised both Democratic and Republican operatives, who are not Bognino’s target audience and who, for the most part, do not listen to his show. For an hour each weekday, he rails against mask mandates, probes the latest news on Hunter Biden’s business dealings and, in recent days, offers highly dubious spins on alleged irregularities and unusual voting patterns in the 2020 election. On Facebook, he posts clips of himself in a T-shirt, recording the podcast and talking straight-to-camera, giving the posts a sense of intimacy.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">[Wayne County, Mich.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">2020 ELECTIONS In abrupt reversal, Michigan’s largest county certifies election results</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">BY KYLE CHENEY AND ZACH MONTELLARO]</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Bongino said in an interview that, though he repeatedly highlights accounts of questionable votes and possible ballot harvesting, “I make very clear on the show, I’m not saying it’s fraud.” But he isn’t above raising questions about the vote for days on end — and there’s a booming market for such stories.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“People like the content on my Facebook page because it’s me — it’s my clips, from my show, that millions upon millions of people see,” Bongino said. “People find my stuff genuine and they share it. Why are we more popular than The New York Times and The Washington Post combined? Obviously people don’t like The New York Times’ content.”</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Listeners don’t doubt that Bongino believes what he says, said Doug Stafford, former chief of staff for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul who consulted for Bongino during his 2016 House race in Florida.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“He’s a good messenger,” said Stafford. “And it’s a principled message — it comes from a place of conviction. I think people hear that right away.”</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">A former New York City police officer, Bongino joined the Secret Service in 1999 and later served on protective duty for presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. In 2012, he started a series of three unsuccessful runs for office, first for the U.S. Senate in Maryland (where he won the Republican nomination but lost to Democrat Ben Cardin with only 26.6 percent of the vote), and then for a Maryland congressional seat (where he lost again, by a narrow margin of 1.5 percent).</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">[Dan Bongino during his 2012 Senate run in Maryland</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">In 2015, Bongino and his family moved to Florida, where he said he had a “non-emergency family situation,” but added, bluntly, “I enjoy politics and there are certainly opportunities down there.” He ran in a primary in a district near his home against Francis Rooney, a local businessman who self-funded his campaign with more than $3 million. At one point, a POLITICO reporter and Bongino got into a phone argument over Bongino’s criticism of a news report, and Bongino went on a minuteslong recorded tirade, before shouting, “Go fuck yourself, you piece of shit!” and hanging up the phone.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Bongino lost again — but found a new niche. The shout-talking, Trump-loving ex-cop became a cable news guest perfectly suited for the Trump era, and he started appearing frequently. Soon he caught the attention of Trump himself, who started retweeting Bongino and praising him for his appearances.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Bongino landed a show on NRATV, the now-defunct digital streaming service affiliated with the pro-gun rights network, and made frequent guest appearances on Fox News, where he eventually became a contributor. He defended Trump-fueled conspiracies like Spygate, which contends the Obama administration embedded an informant on Trump’s 2016 campaign for political purposes, and which became the subject of Bongino’s 2018 book.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Trump himself has become a repeat guest on Bongino’s show, as have Trump allies like Rudy Giuliani.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">There, Giuliani made claims last week that the voting software used in some states, Dominion Voting Systems, is owned by a foreign company that has ties to both Venezuelan leaders and Democratic billionaire George Soros and that “flipped” some votes.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“We’re basically having our votes counted by Venezuelans who are close to [Nicolás] Maduro,” Giuliani told Bongino.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“That’s insane,” Bongino replied. (Dominion has said it has no ownership ties to the other company, and U.S. cybersecurity authorities from the Department of Homeland Security have said in a statement: “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”)</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Bongino’s show is not the only conservative podcast to catch fire since the election: Other podcasts including The Mark Levin Show and The Ben Shapiro Show have also seen their audiences rise significantly, to top-10 slots on Apple’s charts in recent days, Vulture reported.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“[Bongino’s] not an exception, he’s just the top of a larger trend,” said Angelo Carusone, president of the left-wing media watchdog group Media Matters for America.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Bongino has captured an audience online — boosted by his frequent appearances on Fox News — that is hungry for news of election fraud and a potential Trump victory, and the more engagement he gets, the more he’s rewarded by Facebook and other social media algorithms, Carusone said.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“Ultimately, it’s Facebook’s wave, and he’s just managing to stay above it,” Carusone said.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Indeed: Bongino’s posts were among the day’s 10 most-shared on Facebook at least 63 times in the past month, according to data collected by the analytics platform Crowdtangle and shared by The New York Times on Twitter. That’s more exposure than Trump, whose posts were ranked in the top 10 at least 31 times, and Fox News, who were top 10 at least 46 times.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Yet as Bongino’s show has grown in popularity, he is increasingly relying on websites and platforms he has an ownership stake in, giving him more control over his content and greater potential for profit.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Late last year, he launched Bongino Report, his alternative to Drudge Report, and he routinely posts his links on social media to drive to the site. This summer, he announced he’d become an investor in Parler, the right-wing social media site pitching itself as an alternative to Twitter or Facebook that has become a safe harbor for banned figures like far-right commentator Alex Jones. Bongino has formed a similar partnership with Rumble, a video platform trying to siphon traffic away from YouTube.....</div>=russia?<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/parler-russia-privacy/">https://www.wired.com/story/parler-russia-privacy/</a>=an621 dan bong back to twit<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/twitter-parler/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/twitter-parler/</a>==<a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/parler-returns-to-apple-app-store-after-hate-speech-crackdown-can-it-compete-with-alternatives/">https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/parler-returns-to-apple-app-store-after-hate-speech-crackdown-can-it-compete-with-alternatives/</a>
=mercer also backs convention?! =<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/constitutional-convention/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/constitutional-convention/</a>Paul Krugman, liberal economist and long-time columnist for the New York Times, has argued that Republicans have long since ceased to view Democrats as the loyal opposition — and that they don't believe that Democrats even have <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/featured/sns-nyt-op-biden-deal-with-republican-sabotage-20201201-clcf7qmrgfekpblgj7ut7p3hfm-story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">"the right to govern."</a> Journalist Travis Waldron, in an <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mark-meckler-article-five-constitutional-convention_n_6086c380e4b09cce6c143b10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">article published by HuffPost</a> this week, examines the type of changes that far-right Republicans would make to the U.S. Constitution if a constitutional convention were to come about. And according to Waldron, "The project to overhaul the Constitution is much closer to fruition than most people realize.""Since 2014, the Convention of States Project and other conservative groups, including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), have helped persuade lawmakers in 15 states to pass resolutions that call for a new constitutional convention," Waldron explains. "Led by a prominent right-wing activist ― former Tea Party Patriots founder Mark Meckler, who is also the current acting CEO of Parler, a social media platform popular on the right ― the Convention of States Project has spread the gospel of a convention to an increasingly radical audience. This year, lawmakers proposed 42 Convention of States resolutions in at least <a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2021/02/15/parler-is-now-in-the-hands-of-a-right-wing-activist-seeking-a-radical-rewrite-of-the-constitution/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">24 new states</a>, according to the Center for Media and Democracy, which has long monitored the convention push."Article V of the U.S. Constitution allows a constitutional convention to be called if two-thirds of the states called for one, which means that 34 states would be needed.Dave Super, a law professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., believes that a constitutional convention is a strong possibility if Republicans perform well in the 2022 midterms.Super told HuffPost, "I think if (Republicans) win the midterm elections, if they take the House and Senate, they will try to call an Article V convention immediately. It's not a foregone conclusion that the simple Republican majority would get there, but if they get big majorities, I think they'll try."Some civil libertarians, Waldron warns, fear the type of changes far-right Republicans would make to the U.S. Constitution if a constitutional convention were held.According to Waldron, "Opponents…. see a far more nefarious plot: a master class in astroturfing that could open the entire document up to a radical rewrite meant to serve the right-wing corporate interests that already dominate our politics, especially at the state level. The convention, they argue, could lead to the demolition of everything from the social safety net and environmental protections to civil rights laws. Or maybe even the Constitution itself."Both liberals and right-wing libertarians who spoke to HuffPost are worried about what Republicans would do at a constitutional convention.Jay Riestenberg of the liberal group Common Cause told HuffPost, "The 1st Amendment, the 14th Amendment, the 15th Amendment — any civil rights, any constitutional protection in the Constitution could be up for grabs in this constitutional convention." And Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, told HuffPost, "We shouldn't want to go down that road, especially now that we've just had an experience of how dangerous and unpleasant it is to get close to a constitutional legitimacy crisis."Although the Cato Institute is quite conservative on economic issues, the libertarian think tank has been highly critical of the more authoritarian ideas pushed by some Republicans and social conservatives.Waldron notes that because an "an Article V convention has never been called," the "legal limits haven't yet been meaningfully tested."Some liberals like the idea of a constitutional convention, but Super fears that if one were held, it would be the far-right — not liberals or progressives — calling the shots.Super told HuffPost, "My fears are basically that the oil and gas industry makes sure that we can ever have cap-and-trade or a carbon tax, and makes it very easy for a single friendly administration to give them irrevocable rights to public lands that the Takings Clause would prevent anyone from ever taking from them — so basically, crippling environmental enforcement."<div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/constitutional-law-expert-makes-the-case-for-trump-to-resign-but-why-have-so-few-others-demanded-he-step-down/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Constitutional law expert makes the case for Trump to resign — but ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/mike-flynn/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Mike Flynn joins chorus of right-wingers demanding new election ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/arizona-gop-wage-war-on-voting-rights-with-more-than-two-dozen-restrictive-voting-laws/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">'Everybody shouldn't be voting.': Arizona Republicans wage war on ... ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://teachingamericanhistory.org/resources/convention/" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">The Constitutional Convention - Teaching American History ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Constitutional-Convention" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Constitutional Convention | History & Compromises | Britannica ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_Convention(United_States)" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Constitutional Convention (United States) - Wikipedia ›</a></li></ul></div><div></div>=trump inc wanted 40%<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/parler/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/parler/</a>=de-plat but back w/ russian support? 1/21=<div>
</div><div>1/25/21 an</div><div>A new video and report published by the New York University School of Law's <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/74335/fight-for-trump-video-evidence-of-incitement-at-the-capitol/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Just Security</a> reveals stunningly damning evidence of how President Donald Trump's carefully-crafted January 6 speech to rally-goers incited the Capitol insurrection barely hours later.
The video (excerpt below) includes clips of user-created recordings, most of which were uploaded to Parler, a social media platform that has attracted white supremacists and other members of the far right, showing how, in real time, Trump's words were received and how attendees – who had been invited and urged to attend by Trump and his team and allies for weeks – responded to and interpreted his remarks.These video clips show "how the crowd reacted in real time to some of the most potent lines in Trump's speech at the Ellipse," write Just Security's Ryan Goodman and Justin Hendrix. "The videos, along with other information in the public record, provide strong evidence of a causal link between Trump's messages to his supporters and their dangerous, illegal conduct. The collection of videos, viewed chronologically, also shows the ways in which Trump placed the life of Vice President Mike Pence, among others, in grave danger."Remember, Trump had tweeted about the January 6 rally weeks earlier, telling supporters it was going to be "wild."He also <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-dan-scavino-white-house-insiders-capitol-b1786148.html" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">had to have known how his attacks on the results of a free and fair election were working</a>, because his social media team reportedly monitored not only Facebook and Twitter, but far right social media platforms like Parler, Gab, numerous groups on Reddit, along with the QAnon groups.At his Senate impeachment trial Trump reportedly will try to make the argument he was merely invoking his First Amendment rights on January 6, but he clearly had to have known the effect his words would have.Just before his father addressed what would soon become an insurrectionist and domestic terrorist mob Donald Trump. Jr. recorded video of the President in a tent by the stage watching with glee the already ramped-up crowd, which he would explode into insurrection.Former federal prosecutor Paul Butler tells Just Security that the "video contains strong evidence that Trump did incite the insurrection, regardless of whether that was his intent. The rioter's words 'we were invited here' were exactly right, and the refrain 'fight for Trump' was directly responsive to Trump's demand. In criminal law, we would say this video proves the act but perhaps not the mental state – that Trump intended to cause the insurrection or knew it would happen as a result of his words."Here's a two-minute excerpt of the 10-minute video:
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bfa2209b11793ac8157c43e6ab7a0be1" id="5daef" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 550px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><blockquote class="twitter-custom-tweet twitter-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-lazy-tweet-id="1353706505963524096" data-twitter-tweet-id="1353706505963524096" data-twitter-extracted-i1611596662347416046="true" style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.543px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><div style="margin: 1em 0px;">New video footage: shows the crowd’s immediate reactions to Trump’s most potent remarks at January 6 speech. Verdi… https://t.co/lqWV8DgpUh</div>— Ryan Goodman (@Ryan Goodman)<a href="https://twitter.com/rgoodlaw/statuses/1353706505963524096" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">1611583756.0</a></blockquote></div><div class="around-the-web"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><li class="from-your-siteitem" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/trump-totally-appropriate/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Internet slams Trump for saying his inflammatory speech ahead of ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/trey-gowdy/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Trey Gowdy rattles Fox News host by saying Trump incited riot: 'Did ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/trump-linguists/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Linguists break down how Trump's language shifted in the weeks ... ›</a></li></ul></div></div><div>=</div>=no lnxafter the Supreme Court refused to hear Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's case seeking to toss hundreds of thousands of votes in four swing states, right-wingers on Parler, the far-right version of Twitter, are literally calling for Trump to use the military and conservative states to secede from the union, essentially setting the conditions for a bloody civil war. Here's a sampling of different messages on Parler: "Time for succession... If even the GOP majority Supreme Court won't hear the citizens' claims of corruption in the election process; then we need to create our own separate country from all of those that cheat us of our given rights!!" "I'm fucking raging!!!! Patriots do NOT allow those dirty thieving DemocRats to take this election from our one and only hero President Donald J. Trump!!! If he sold out Supreme Court won't stand up for DJT then we MUST boycott the runoff election to show those pussy ass so-called Republicans how much." "Trump will not let this stand. There is no way Biden will be inaugurated. The enemies of our nation cannot be allowed to take over its government. This is the reason we have a military." "Are we just going to sit back in our lazy boy recliners and whine about this or are we going to stand up and take action? It's time." "Trump needs to declare war. We are under attack" "#Texit Texas must exit" "INSURRECTION ACT time!!!!!" "TIME TO CALL IN THE KRACKIN (MARSHAL-LAW)" This election was nothing but fraud. Basement Biden got more votes then Obama?! Yeah, right. Dems want to play?! Let's play. New game, new rules. Except this time, the reds win." https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1337557156246269952 https://twitter.com/MomJovi/status/1337582517180792833 In related news, Vice found that even the most extreme right-wingers are starting to abandon Parler because there are no liberals, Democrats and progressives there to argue with; the site has lots of pornography, including child pornography; and fraudsters have been able to imitate right-wing leaders and make fraudulent verified accounts for them.FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLESTrump-supporting media outlets turn on each other as they pick ... ›'Growing' extremist QAnon movement is being 'weaponized' to 'boost ... ›Researcher reveals how far-right media is feeding viewers' post ... ›Parler: The alternative social network that's got America's right wing ... ›Parler brings together mainstream conservatives and white ... ›RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEBParler app: Conservatives find home on social media platforms rife ... ›Parler says it's the last place for free speech online. But it's restricting ... ›How Some Conservatives Have Switched to Parler, Rumble and ... ›<h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 25px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">r<a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/parler/" aria-label="Right-wingers on Parler call for  civil war after SCOTUS dumps Trump's election fraud case" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; word-break: break-word; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 25px;">ight-wingers on Parler call for  civil war after SCOTUS dumps Trump's election fraud case</a></h1><div class="social-author clearfix" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/danielvillarreal" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative;">Daniel Villarreal</a> <a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/the-new-civil-rights-movement" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative;">The New Civil Rights Movement</a></div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2649460041" style="margin-top: 10px; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; margin-bottom: 15px; display: -webkit-box; text-overflow: ellipsis; line-height: 23px; -webkit-line-clamp: 3; overflow: hidden; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description" style="">After the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2020/12/supreme-court-tosses-texas-multi-state-demand-to-void-millions-of-votes-in-four-states-biden-won/" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word;">refused to hear Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's case</a> seeking to toss hundreds of thousands of votes in four swing states, right-wingers on Parler, the far-right version of Twitter, are literally calling for...</div><div class="body-description" style="">
</div><div class="body-description" style="">[bad code?]</div><div class="body-description" style="">
</div></div>=kelly loeffer $ pitch fail "whore"=<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/parler-2649061728/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/parler-2649061728/</a>Since the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Parler has caught on among <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/technology/parler-rumble-newsmax.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">right-wing politicians and “influencers"</a> – people with large online followings – as a social media platform where they can share and promote ideas without worrying about the company blocking or flagging their posts for being dangerous or misleading. However, the website has become a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/right-wing-social-media-finalizes-its-divorce-reality/617177/" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">haven for far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists</a> who are now interacting with the mainstream conservatives flocking to the platform.As the three highest-profile social media companies – YouTube, Facebook and Twitter – <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/04/tech/social-media-election-misinformation/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">continue to take action</a> to mitigate the spread of extremism and disinformation, Parler has welcomed the ensuing exodus of right-wing users. It has exploded in popularity, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/11/23/parler-conservatives-still-on-twitter/" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">doubling its members to 10 million</a> during the month of November – although it is still dwarfed by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/02/07/twitter-reveals-its-daily-active-user-numbers-first-time/" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Twitter's roughly 330 million monthly active users</a>.With its newfound success, the site is contributing to the widening gap between the different perceptions of reality held by the polarized public. On mainstream social media, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the presidential election, and theories alleging crimes by the Biden campaign and Democrats are <a href="https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/election-2020/why-twitter-keeps-flagging-trumps-tweets-for-misinformation" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">flagged as misinformation</a>. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/11/technology-202-parler-surges-popularity-big-tech-cracks-down-election-disinformation/" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">On Parler</a>, Donald Trump won in a landslide, only to have his victory stolen by a wide-ranging alliance of evildoers, including Democrats and the so-called “deep state."While it's too early to tell if Parler is here to stay, it has already achieved a reputation and level of engagement that has overtaken other alternative platforms. But along with its success comes the reality that extremist movements like QAnon and <a href="https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-publications-0/boogaloo-movement-wants-be-seen-anti-racist" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">the Boogalooers</a> have thrived in the platform's unregulated chaos.<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Parler's origins</h2>Parler was launched in 2018 and found its place as another niche platform catering to right-wing users who ran afoul of content moderation on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Its user base remained small – fewer than 1 million users – until early 2020.Other primarily right-wing platforms, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/29/18033006/gab-social-media-anti-semitism-neo-nazis-twitter-facebook" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">especially Gab</a>, had housed fringe and violent ideologues and groups for much longer than Parler. These included <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/mb8y3x/the-nazi-free-alternative-to-twitter-is-now-home-to-the-biggest-far-right-social-network" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">violent far-right militias</a> and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/29/gab-forced-offline-following-anti-semitic-posts-by-pittsburgh-shooter" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">mass shooter Robert Bowers</a>.Parler, in contrast, gained a reputation for catering to mainstream conservatives thanks to a handful of high-profile early adopters like <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/28/trump-campaign-twitter-1345357" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Brad Parscale, Candace Owens and Sen. Mike Lee</a>. As a result, in 2020 when Twitter began <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/tech/twitter-enforcement-policy/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">labeling misleading Trump tweets</a> about possible fraud in absentee and mail-in voting, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/25/ted-cruz-joins-parler-339811" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">politicians like Ted Cruz</a> embraced Parler as the next bastion for conservative speech.<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The 2020 election</h2>In the weeks before the Nov. 3 election, the big social media sites took steps to mitigate election-related extremism and disinformation. Twitter rolled out labels for all mail-in ballot misinformation and <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/25/21455635/twitter-read-before-you-tweet-article-prompt-rolling-out-globally-soon" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">put a prompt on tweeted articles</a> to encourage people to read them before retweeting. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-bans-qanon-across-its-platforms-n1242339" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Facebook blocked QAnon groups</a> and, later, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/10/30/qanon-crackdown-facebook-restricts-save-the-children-hashtag/6087740002/" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">restricted QAnon-adjacent accounts pushing “SaveTheChildren" conspiracy theories</a>. Facebook also began <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/10/removing-holocaust-denial-content/" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">prohibiting holocaust denial posts</a>. YouTube labeled and blocked advertising for <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/tech/twitter-enforcement-policy/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">election-related fake information</a>, though it left in place many conspiracy theory-promoting videos.These actions continued in the wake of the election, especially as mainstream conservative politicians and Trump pushed the false claim that Biden and the Democrats committed large-scale voter fraud to steal the election. Consequently, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/14/parler-tiktok-onlyfans-contend-for-facebooks-social-throne.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">millions of users migrated to alternative platforms</a>: Gab, MeWe and, in particular, Parler.Users flocked there because of the promise of a site that wouldn't label false information and wouldn't ban the creation of extremist communities. But they also moved because Republican politicians and well-known elites <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/technology/parler-rumble-newsmax.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">signaled</a> that Parler was the new home for conservative speech. These include commentator Mark Levin and Fox host Sean Hannity.<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Promoting racism, anti-Semitism and violence</h2>Parler has only two community guidelines: It does not knowingly allow criminal activity, and it does not allow spam or bots on its platform. The lack of guidelines on hate speech has allowed racism and anti-Semitism to flourish on Parler.My <a href="https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">research center</a> has spent several years building an extensive encyclopedia of far-right terminology and slang, covering niche topics from the spectrum of white supremacist, neo-fascist and anti-state movements. We have studied the ways that far-right language evolves alongside content moderation efforts from mainstream platforms, and how slang and memes are often used to evade regulations.We have monitored far-right communities on Parler since March and have found frequent use of both obvious white supremacist terms and more implicit, evasive memes and slang. For example, among other explicit white supremacist content, Parler allows usernames referencing the Atomwaffen Division's violentlty anti-Semitic slogan, posts spreading the theory that Jews are descended from Satan, and hashtags such as “HitlerWasRight."In addition, it is easy to find the the implicit bigotry and violence that eventually caused Facebook to ban movements like QAnon. For example, QAnon's version of the <a href="https://www.adl.org/education/resources/glossary-terms/blood-libel" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">“blood libel" theory</a> – the centuries-old conspiracy theory the Jewish people murder Christians and use their blood for rituals – has spread widely on the platform. Thousands of posts also use QAnon hashtags and promote the false claim that global elites are literally eating children.Among the alternative platforms, Parler stands out because white supremacists, QAnon adherents and mainstream conservatives exist in close proximity. This results in comment threads on politicians' posts that are a melting pot of far-right beliefs, such as a response to Donald Trump Jr.'s unfounded allegations of election crimes that states, “Civil war is the only way to drain the swamp."<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Behind the scenes</h2>Parler's ownership is still kept largely secret. However, the few pieces of information that have come to light make Parler's spike in popularity even more concerning.For example, Dan Bongino, the highly popular right-wing commentator who published a book about the “deep state" conspiracy theory and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/technology/dan-bongino-has-no-idea-why-facebook-loves-him.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">frequently publishes unverified information</a>, has at least a small <a href="https://bongino.com/dan-bongino-announces-partnership-with-parler/" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">ownership stake</a> in the company. <a href="https://parler.com/post/09af514096944fd68168f3bda4f5b564" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">CEO John Matze has said</a> that the ownership is composed of himself and “a small group of close friends and employees."Notably, conservative billionaire Robert Mercer and his daughter, Rebekah, are <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/parler-funding-mercer/social-media-platform-parler-gets-backing-from-mercer-family-wsj-idUSKBN27V020" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">investors in the platform</a>. Rebekah Mercer helped co-found it with Matze. The Mercers are well known for their investments in other conservative causes, including Nigel Farage's Brexit campaign, Breitbart News and Cambridge Analytica. The connection to Cambridge Analytica has, in particular, <a href="https://twitter.com/mbaram/status/1328559602942799872?s=20" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">alarmed experts</a>, who worry that Parler may harvest unnecessary data from unwitting users.Parler's privacy policy <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexBNewhouse/status/1329878932292853760" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">doesn't put to rest concerns about user privacy</a>, either: The policy says that Parler has permission to collect a vast amount of personal information, and gives its members much less control than mainstream platforms over what that data can be used for.<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Parler's future</h2>Parler's fate will hinge on what its members do over the next few months. Will the company be able to capitalize on the influx of new users, or will its members slowly trickle back to the larger platforms? A major factor is how Trump himself reacts, and whether he eventually creates an account on Parler.Having catered to a right-wing audience and allowed hate speech to thrive on its platform, Parler is also at the whims of its user base. Parler's main competitor, Gab, similarly attempted to capitalize on concerns about unfair moderation against conservatives. However, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/29/gab-forced-offline-following-anti-semitic-posts-by-pittsburgh-shooter" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Gab's expansion came to a halt</a> after Bowers' mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Bowers had been posting anti-Semitic and violent content on the platform, and the revelation resulted in <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/27/18032930/paypal-banned-gab-following-pittsburgh-shooting" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">PayPal</a>, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/28/18036520/gab-down-godaddy-domain-blocked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">GoDaddy</a> and <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-gab-social-media-white-supremacist-20181029-story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Medium</a> banning Gab from their services.Online extremism and hate <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/11/30/how-online-hate-speech-is-fueling-real-life-violence/" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">can lead to real-world violence</a> by <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/60/1/93/5537169" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">legitimizing extreme actions</a>. Parler's tolerance of hate, bigotry and affiliation with violent movements opens the possibility that, like Gab, one or more of its members will commit acts of violence.Although it's hard to know how Parler will grow in the future, my research suggests that the extremism among its user base will persist for months to come.<img alt="The Conversation" height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150439/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" width="1" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; max-width: 100%;" /><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alex-newhouse-1179476" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Alex Newhouse</a>, Research Lead, Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/middlebury-institute-of-international-studies-4126" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Middlebury Institute of International Studies</a>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/parler-is-bringing-together-mainstream-conservatives-anti-semites-and-white-supremacists-as-the-social-media-platform-attracts-millions-of-trump-supporters-150439" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">original article</a>.<div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/right-wing-media-fight/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Trump-supporting media outlets turn on each other as they pick ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/right-wing-media/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Researcher reveals how far-right media is feeding viewers' post ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/parler/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Parler: The alternative social network that's got America's right wing ... ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/27/parler-ceo-wants-liberal-to-join-the-pro-trump-crowd-on-the-app.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Parler CEO wants liberal to join the pro-Trump crowd on the app ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/14/tech/parler-app-conservatives/index.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Parler app: Conservatives find home on social media platforms rife ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.adl.org/blog/parler-where-the-mainstream-mingles-with-the-extreme" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: 700; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Parler: Where the Mainstream Mingles with the Extreme | Anti ... ›</a></li></ul></div>=<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/right-wing-media/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/right-wing-media/</a>Trump was furious when, on Election Night, Fox News' decision desk called Arizona for Joe Biden — and many of Trump's followers share his sense of betrayal. Trump has been urging his MAGA base to look to sources other than Fox News or Fox Business for information, and according to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/right-wing-social-media-finalizes-its-divorce-reality/617177/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Renée DiResta</a> — a technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory — some right-wing social media outlets are happy to tell Trump devotees what they want to hear.After Fox News called Arizona for Biden, DiResta notes this week in an article for The Atlantic, the internet was full of anti-Fox hashtags from his supporters. And Trump devotees, according to DiResta, are also angry with Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.DiResta explains, "Throughout Election Day, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube had been cracking down on a flurry of allegations about voter fraud in Arizona; the platforms quickly applied warning labels to new posts containing false or disputed information and reduced the distribution of groups spreading them. In response, pro-Trump influencers exhorted their followers to congregate on Parler."[twt]DiResta cites the social media app Parler as one of the right-wing outlets that has been willing to help Trump promote "baseless conspiracy theories." And she points out that for some Trump supporters, Newsmax TV and One America News have become far-right alternatives to Fox News."For most of Trump's term, Facebook and others had been loath to crack down on even baseless conspiracy theories, including those repeated by the president himself," DiResta explains. "Freedom of expression, the argument went, covers the right to think and say even floridly false things, which were best addressed through corrections and counter-speech. Yet the major platforms concluded that misleading theories about the election were a distinct class of misinformation because of their potential to cause significant harm to the body politic."Other Trump-friendly outlets, DiResta observes, range from the tube sites Rumble and BitChute to the social media site Gab — which has been described as a far-right equivalent of Twitter."People are joining Parler today to find like-minded users to validate their own beliefs, but ultimately, some percentage will get bored and move on," DiResta argues. "That subset will ultimately drift away from the app. It's less user-friendly than Facebook, and it lacks one of the primary appeals that Twitter affords its core users: the ability to criticize people at the other end of the political spectrum. For some Trump supporters, the whole point of politics is to 'own the libs,' but on Parler, there are no libs around to own."<div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="text-transform: uppercase;">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2014/06/how-right-wing-echo-chamber-helped-spawn-las-vegas-white-supremacist-shooters/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">How the Right-Wing Echo Chamber Helped Spawn the Las Vegas ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/research-exposes-how-right-wing-media-misled-viewers-about-the-coronavirus/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Research exposes how right-wing media misled viewers about the ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/trumps-limp-coup-is-falling-apart-but-right-wing-media-and-certain-gop-politicians-dont-know-when-to-cut-bait/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Trump's limp coup is falling apart — and right-wing media is losing it ... ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/20/business/media/steve-bannon-china.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">How Steve Bannon and a Chinese Billionaire Created a Right-Wing ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/media/right-wing-media-election-denialism/index.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">How right-wing media is encouraging Trump's election denialism ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/right-wing-social-media-finalizes-its-divorce-reality/617177/" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Right-Wing Social Media Had to Divorce Reality - The Atlantic ›</a></li></ul></div><h2>=</h2>=<a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/parler-and-the-free-speech-red-herring/">https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/parler-and-the-free-speech-red-herring/</a>=<div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/right-wing-media-fight">https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/right-wing-media-fight</a></div><div>
</div><div>raw story</div><div>
</div><div>On Saturday, Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/14/trumps-media-battles-for-maga-436502" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reported</a> that the right-wing news ecosystem is heading for a shakeup as pro-Trump outlets struggle for supremacy in the aftermath of the president's defeat.Two of the big shakeups are the decline of viewership for Fox News, long the center of the right-wing media universe, and the gravitation of right-wing social media content to <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/parler-app-free-speech-influencers/" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Parler</a>, a self-described "pro-free-speech" website that promises not to fact-check content as Facebook and Twitter increasingly remove or flag viral fake news and misinformation."While Fox News still easily bests newer networks like Newsmax in viewership, a Newsmax show on Thursday night drew more than 1 million viewers for the first time, according to Nielsen TV ratings. And since Fox News network committed the ultimate heresy — being the first to declare Biden had flipped Arizona, and later acknowledging Biden's victory — the network's disenchanted viewers may now be up for grabs," reported Tina Nguyen. "So the race is on to determine which outlet — cable, radio, internet or otherwise — will embrace Trumpism the tightest. And the competition is driving the far-right MAGA echo chamber to cannibalize itself.""At the center of it all is an impulse for confirmation bias, according to misinformation and extremist researchers," said the report. "Trump supporters, they said, are looking for a place to migrate that promotes their theories on why their candidate lost. That's why they've increasingly gravitated to places like One America News Network and Newsmax, two Trump-friendly conservative outlets that are more inclined to embrace the debunked ballot-fraud conspiracies Fox News will not touch. Similarly, Parler has fewer compunctions on fact-checking the evidence-challenged claims about fraudulent ballots that Twitter has started regularly flagging."Adding to the chaos, according to the report, "Populist news sites like Big League Politics have attacked the organizers of Stop the Steal, a loose network of Trump-affiliated groups organizing mini-protests against the election results. MAGA influencers have razed conservative allies expressing slightly more realistic expectations."One possible consequence of Trump's loss, said the report, is that the various far-right elements that made up MAGA culture will factionalize."Without Trump in office — or even in public life — it's more than likely that these disparate groups fragment back into their own separate zones online," said the report. "White nationalists, after all, can't exist in the same movement as hardline pro-Israel activists. Anarcho-libertarians don't naturally fit with more extreme evangelicals. And QAnon supporters can hardly stomach anyone reporting any unfavorable news about Trump, even if it's from Newsmax."</div><div>=</div><div>aha qanon is apoc in minature, trump = messiah , wicked will be vanquished</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/the-extremist-qanon-movement-is-growing-and-being-weaponized-to-boost-trumps-reelection-campaign-report/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/the-extremist-qanon-movement-is-growing-and-being-weaponized-to-boost-trumps-reelection-campaign-report/</a></div><div>
</div><div>Whenever President Donald Trump is asked about QAnon, he will say a few nice things about the far-right conspiracy theorists while insisting that he doesn't know much about them. It isn't hard to understand why Trump is taking that approach: he wants the votes of QAnon supporters, while keeping some distance from them. In an <a href="https://www.axios.com/qanon-grows-2020-election-0f2d7be2-4ae8-4fc1-b5d1-727b77498165.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">article published in Axios</a> on October 21, journalists Stef W. Kight and Sara Fischer report that the movement is still "growing" — and that QAnon is being "weaponized to boost President Trump ahead of the election."Kight and Fischer explain, "What began as a single conspiracy theory linking Hillary Clinton to child trafficking four years ago is now part of a convoluted web of falsehoods being spread to undermine Joe Biden…. In a year of unrest and expected election turmoil, experts are concerned that belief in QAnon could be another instigator of violence in some communities if Trump loses in November."According to the QAnon conspiracy theory, the federal government of the United States has been infiltrated by an international cabal of child sex traffickers, Satanists and cannibals — and Trump was put in the White House to fight against them. An anonymous figure named Q, members of the cult believe, is providing updates on the president's battle. <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/half-of-trump-supporters-believe-qanons-unhinged-conspiracy-theories-poll/" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">QAnon members</a> believe that everyone from billionaire Democrat George Soros to R&B superstar Beyoncé is part of the conspiracy, insisting that Beyoncé isn't really African-American but rather, is really an Italian woman and Soros ally named <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2020/07/06/the-bizarre-beyonc-conspiracy-theory-explained/#3863a11a34c4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Ann Marie Lastrassi</a>.But as absurd as QAnon's beliefs are, FBI agents have warned that the movement is dangerous. Kight and Fischer note that security experts are worried about how QAnon will respond if Biden wins the election — and Bryce Webster-Jacobsen, who specializes in cyber-security for GroupSense, says that QAnon's possible response to a Biden victory on November 3 "keeps me up at night.""Recent reports about what was purported to be Hunter Biden's computer hard drive have sparked renewed activity from Q, with more concrete ideas to latch onto," Kight and Fischer explain. "On the day the New York Post reported on the alleged hard drive, Q posted 16 times, per GroupSense."President Trump's son Donald Trump, Jr., the Axios reporters point out, has been encouraging QAnon."Earlier this year, Donald Trump, Jr. jokingly insinuated that Biden was a pedophile — a nod to QAnon lore that many Democrats use their political power to hide widespread pedophilia," Kight and Fischer note. "Some Republican politicians' adoption of aspects of the theory has helped bring it more mainstream, Webster-Jacobsen said."Some tech companies have been taking a stand against QAnon.Kight and Fischer report, "On Monday, Spotify removed QAnon podcasts, and TikTok officially banned all QAnon content. YouTube and Peloton announced QAnon crackdowns last week. Facebook and Triller both banned QAnon earlier this month. Etsy banned QAnon products two weeks ago, and Twitter shut down QAnon accounts in July."However, the Axios reporters add that "despite these bans, QAnon followers still find other places online to congregate, like Parler, a far-right social media app."</div><div>=</div><div>=</div><div>https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/09/30/the-app-that-the-proud-boys-used-to-celebrate-donald-trumps-debate-performance</div><div>bs</div><div>
</div><div>who emerged the winner from the presidential debate between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden?To many, it was hard to tell. It seemed like cacophonous chaos, the night producing less of a clear victory for either man than an overall loss for a country that had to sit through 90 minutes of barbs, cross talk and ill will. But the crowd on Parler, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/06/27/parlers-founder-explains-why-he-built-trumps-new-favorite-social-media-app/#c862fed5016f" target="self" class="color-link" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/06/27/parlers-founder-explains-why-he-built-trumps-new-favorite-social-media-app/#c862fed5016f" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/06/27/parlers-founder-explains-why-he-built-trumps-new-favorite-social-media-app/#c862fed5016f" aria-label="a new social media app" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">a new social media app</a> that courts conservative America, including <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/09/26/who-are-the-proud-boys-the-group-planning-a-controversial-portland-rally/" target="self" class="color-link" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/09/26/who-are-the-proud-boys-the-group-planning-a-controversial-portland-rally/" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/09/26/who-are-the-proud-boys-the-group-planning-a-controversial-portland-rally/" aria-label="the far-right Proud Boys" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">the far-right Proud Boys</a>, seemed to reach a more definitive conclusion: This was a total victory for Trump.“People were on Parler tonight because they can freely express their views without fear of being throttled, banned, deplatformed,” says John Matze, the app’s founder. He sees Parler as an alternative to Twitter and Facebook, the mainstream platforms that Matze and others believe try to silence conservatives. “Overall, I think their Parler experience contributed to a fair and free election.”Parler, founded in 2018, has become a beacon for Republicans during the past few months, and in June, Trump publicly flirted with the idea of leaving Facebook and Twitter to concentrate efforts on Parler. He didn’t, though he, his son Eric and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani all made official accounts and became active on the app. So did plenty of Trump supporters. At one point this summer, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/parler-app-store-downloads-appannie-social-media-apple-android-john-matze-1513670" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://www.newsweek.com/parler-app-store-downloads-appannie-social-media-apple-android-john-matze-1513670" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.newsweek.com/parler-app-store-downloads-appannie-social-media-apple-android-john-matze-1513670" aria-label="Parler was getting" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Parler was getting</a> 500,000 downloads a week, and its user base neared 2 million, many times the amount on the app before Trump highlighted Parler, a place that the Proud Boys have made a home for themselves since Twitter and Facebook suspended the group in 2018.<div class="recirc-unit recirc-unit-open" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 235, 235); margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; 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cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a class="recirc-link" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/09/20/trump-threatens-to-issue-executive-order-preventing-biden-from-being-elected-president/" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a class="recirc-link" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/09/20/trump-threatens-to-issue-executive-order-preventing-biden-from-being-elected-president/" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a class="recirc-link" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/09/20/trump-threatens-to-issue-executive-order-preventing-biden-from-being-elected-president/" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a class="recirc-link" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/09/20/trump-threatens-to-issue-executive-order-preventing-biden-from-being-elected-president/" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a class="recirc-link" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/09/20/trump-threatens-to-issue-executive-order-preventing-biden-from-being-elected-president/" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Trump Threatens To Issue Executive Order Preventing Biden From Being Elected President</a></h3></li><li class="recirc-story" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-block-start: 0px; margin-block-end: 0px; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-left: 16px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 16px; position: relative;"><h3 class="recirc-headline" data-ga-track="Collab Filtering SEO Recirc Unit: 6" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent; margin-block-start: 0px; margin-block-end: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;"><a class="recirc-link" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/09/26/who-are-the-proud-boys-the-group-planning-a-controversial-portland-rally/" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Who Are The Proud Boys, The Group Behind The Controversial Portland Rally?</a>]</h3></li></ul></div>Unsurprisingly then, Parler was a hotbed of activity throughout Tuesday’s debate. John Solomon, the founder and editor in chief of the right-leaning News.com, labeled the evening a “Biden blunder.” The event was characterized in violent terms by one self-described “supremacist” on the app, @MidnightMarauder: “The equivalent of #trump bringing a gun to a pillow fight.” While another user, @HouseofTrump, simply concluded that Biden “truly has no clue.”Those words glow with only low luminosity when compared to the 10,000-watt intensity on the app after Trump <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/09/29/stand-back-and-stand-by-trump-doesnt-condemn-white-supremacists-but-gives-shoutout-to-right-wing-proud-boys/" target="self" class="color-link" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/09/29/stand-back-and-stand-by-trump-doesnt-condemn-white-supremacists-but-gives-shoutout-to-right-wing-proud-boys/" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/09/29/stand-back-and-stand-by-trump-doesnt-condemn-white-supremacists-but-gives-shoutout-to-right-wing-proud-boys/" aria-label="told the Proud Boys" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">told the Proud Boys</a> during the debate to “stand back and stand by,” a phrase that the group understandably interpreted as a call to arms.Proud Boys leader Joe Biggs could hardly contain his glee, typing out this on Parler: “Trump basically said to go fuck them up! this makes me so happy.” (He <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/proud-boys-celebrate-after-trump-s-debate-call-out-n1241512?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/proud-boys-celebrate-after-trump-s-debate-call-out-n1241512?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/proud-boys-celebrate-after-trump-s-debate-call-out-n1241512?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma" aria-label="reportedly made similar comments" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">reportedly made similar comments</a> on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app that has attracted nationalist groups because of its anonymity-protecting technology.) Biggs has a sizable following on the app, some 34,000 people, and he describes himself in his Parler profile as a “Singer, Motorcycle rider and freedom fighter.”Enrique Tarrio, another Proud Boys chief, echoed Biggs’ comment. “I’m am [sic] extremely PROUD of my Presidents performance tonight,” he wrote on Parler. The Proud Boys’ widely followed main account, @TheProudBoys, which has 50,000 subscribers, offered up a brief summation of the evening, punctuating their excitement with capital letters: “THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!” Below those words was a picture of a black T-shirt with the words “Proud Boys Standing By” emblazoned on it in canary yellow.Matze, the app’s founder, had this to say about the talk on his app. “We are a neutral town square. As long as [the Proud Boys’] speech is legal . . . and they follow our [terms of service] . . . we do not discriminate based off group or association.”As it happens, the boys did not, actually, have the last word on Parler last night. An hour after the debate, user @IceQueenAsh, who has decorated her Parler profile with <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecohen/2020/09/03/the-full-tale-of-pepe-the-frogs-journey-from-innocent-cartoon-to-pro-trump-racist-icon-is-finally-being-told/" target="self" class="color-link" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecohen/2020/09/03/the-full-tale-of-pepe-the-frogs-journey-from-innocent-cartoon-to-pro-trump-racist-icon-is-finally-being-told/" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecohen/2020/09/03/the-full-tale-of-pepe-the-frogs-journey-from-innocent-cartoon-to-pro-trump-racist-icon-is-finally-being-told/" aria-label="Pepe the Frog" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Pepe the Frog</a> and characterizes herself as a “#proudmom” and a “#proud patriot,” wrote: “Screw it I’ll say it! #TheProudGals are here in spirit and damn proud how #TheProudBoys have handled themselves!”“The Proud Boys are awesome,” she concluded. “Good old fashion red white and blue!”</div><div>=</div>=<a href="https://www.axios.com/qanons-2020-resurgence-41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad.html">https://www.axios.com/qanons-2020-resurgence-41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad.html</a>aug 4 strange realities of 2020 have perfectly played to the kind of fear QAnon thrives on, driving record online interest in the conspiracy theory.Why it matters: QAnon is not just one fringe conspiracy theory — it's a sprawling network of falsehoods that's seeping into the mainstream. Its growing influence is sowing fear and confusion around some of today's most important issues, such as election integrity and the coronavirus pandemic.Catch up quick: QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory that alleges the "deep state" is engaged in a global fight to take down President Trump.<ul style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url(" https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;">QAnon rose out of the 2016 Pizzagate conspiracy theory and has grown into a decentralized network that analyzes cryptic prophecies dropped in remote online forums by "Q," who claims, without ever offering evidence, to be a Trump administration official with high-level clearance.</li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;">Q maintains President Trump is secretly fighting a child-selling cabal in the U.S., though the conspiracy has spiraled to cover a vast array of claims, from JFK Jr. having faked his death to help Trump behind the scenes to the coronavirus being a hoax or a biological weapon engineered in either case by sinister elites.</li></ul>By the numbers: Conspiracy theories tied to QAnon are growing more popular.<ul style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url(" https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;">There was more than 10 times as much Google search interest in QAnon in mid-July than in mid-January, according to Google Trends data.</li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;">QAnon pages and groups on Facebook had nearly 10 times more likes at the end of last month than they did last July, according to data tracked by the Atlantic Council and shared with Axios.</li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;">There has been a 190% increase in the daily average number of tweets with popular QAnon hashtags since March as compared to the seven months prior,according to data from GroupSense provided to Axios.</li></ul>Parts of the mainstream Republican party have latched on, helping drive its conspiracy theories mainstream.<ul style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url(" https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;">11 QAnon supporters <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="are now 2020 Republican Congressional nominees" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/qanon-nominees-congress-gop-8086ed21-b7d3-46af-9016-d132e65ba801.html" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/qanon-nominees-congress-gop-8086ed21-b7d3-46af-9016-d132e65ba801.html" target="self">are now 2020 Republican Congressional nominees</a>.</li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;">President Trump himself has retweeted QAnon followers at least <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="90 times" data-vars-click-url="https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/fbi-calls-qanon-domestic-terror-threat-trump-has-amplified-qanon-supporters-twitter-more-20" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/fbi-calls-qanon-domestic-terror-threat-trump-has-amplified-qanon-supporters-twitter-more-20" target="blank">90 times</a> since the pandemic began, and others in Trump's inner circle have also shared Q content.</li></ul>Between the lines: For all its twisty logic and branching details, Qanon is premised on a simple narrative of the good working to vanquish the evil, who are responsible for all the world's ills. There are very real concerns that may be driving more people to that narrative.<ul style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url(" https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;">2020's battered economy has spurred wide-ranging anxiety and uncertainty.</li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;">Child trafficking, central to QAnon, has seen greater visibility, with the Jeffrey Epstein saga working as "gasoline poured onto QAnon embers, springing the theory back to life at a moment when some believers were suffering doubts," said Ethan Zuckerman, director of MIT's Center for Civic Media.</li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;">Coronavirus has funneled what might otherwise be disparate conspiracy theories about cover-ups and global vaccine schemes into the grand unified theory offered by QAnon.</li></ul>QAnon could pose real-world danger as it grows, scholars and analysts worry.<ul style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url(" https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;">Experts are particularly concerned it could undermine faith in democracy, with recent Q posts questioning vote-by-mail and election integrity.</li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;">The web of misinformation expanding from within QAnon "definitely has real teeth," said Bryce Webster-Jacobsen of cyber intelligence firm GroupSense.</li></ul>What to watch: Tech giants are starting to crack down on QAnon, but policies around it are inconsistent and may in some cases be easily dodged.<ul style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url(" https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;">Twitter recently shut down <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="7,000 Q-related accounts." data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/twitter-qanon-misinformation-crackdown-08d59aa5-de6d-444c-8a2b-1c40703f899e.html" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/twitter-qanon-misinformation-crackdown-08d59aa5-de6d-444c-8a2b-1c40703f899e.html" target="self">7,000 Q-related accounts.</a> It expects broader policy changes to limit the reach of another 150,000 accounts, per <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="NBC News. " data-vars-click-url="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/twitter-bans-7-000-qanon-accounts-limits-150-000-others-n1234541" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/twitter-bans-7-000-qanon-accounts-limits-150-000-others-n1234541" target="blank">NBC News.</a></li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;">Facebook removed five pages, 20 accounts, and six groups associated with QAnon <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="for violating its content manipulation" data-vars-click-url="https://about.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/April-2020-CIB-Report.pdf" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://about.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/April-2020-CIB-Report.pdf" target="blank">for violating its content manipulation</a> policies in May.</li><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;">TikTok blocked several hashtags related to QAnon last month <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="from its search results" data-vars-click-url="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53528400" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53528400" target="blank">from its search results</a>, although some of the videos that originally had the hashtags may still be available on the platform.</li></ul>Yes, but: <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="Studies have shown" data-vars-click-url="https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/07/how-much-does-fake-coronavirus-news-affect-peoples-real-life-health-behavior/" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/07/how-much-does-fake-coronavirus-news-affect-peoples-real-life-health-behavior/" target="blank">Studies have shown</a> that users are more likely to seek out bad information when a Big Tech platform <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="flags it as false" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/facebook-stops-putting-disputed-flags-on-fake-news-because-it-doesnt-work-1515110861-46227b6c-8949-4c8d-bca8-f5419f8fc2b7.html" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/facebook-stops-putting-disputed-flags-on-fake-news-because-it-doesnt-work-1515110861-46227b6c-8949-4c8d-bca8-f5419f8fc2b7.html" target="self">flags it as false</a>.<ul style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url(" https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;">"There's sort of this censorship backfire that happens, and people start becoming outraged that [a video is] being taken down and then sharing it more and more and more," said Zarine Kharazian, assistant editor at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.[// STREISAND EFFECT?!</li></ul>Meanwhile: New platforms such as Parler and TheDonald.win are giving the conspiracy theory places to spread unchecked.<ul style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url(" https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;">On Parler, which has <a class="gtm-content-click" data-vars-link-text="attracted conservatives" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/parler-donaldwin-gab-trump-social-media-facebook-9272128a-1bf1-4883-9022-fe8d9ce62365.html" data-vars-content-id="41759d2b-7d08-4d6e-bad0-d2a63b6285ad" data-vars-headline="QAnon's 2020 resurgence" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/parler-donaldwin-gab-trump-social-media-facebook-9272128a-1bf1-4883-9022-fe8d9ce62365.html" target="self">attracted conservatives</a>, Webster-Jacobsen said there are 10,000 to 15,000 new posts every day with the hashtags #QAnon or #WWG1WGA — which stands for the Q catchphrase "where we go one, we go all."</li></ul>The bottom line: Trust in U.S. institutions is dangerously low, which creates a ripe environment for big-tent conspiracies such as QAnon.<ul style="margin-top: 3rem; margin-bottom: 3rem; list-style-image: url(" https="https" static.axios.com="static.axios.com" img="img" axios-site="axios-site" bullet-filled.svg="bullet-filled.svg" padding="padding" px="px" rem="rem"><li style="padding-left: 1rem; margin-top: 3rem;">"In some senses, the QAnon conspiracy is a deeply comfortable one: the idea that pedophile alien lizard people led by Hillary Clinton are running everything is more comfortable than the truth that no one has their hand firmly on the tiller,” Zuckerman say</li></ul></div><div>
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