The Science and Philosophy Forum

Posted: **January 10th, 2021, 12:51 pm**

The online right-wing messaging service Parler will be taken out of service and will no longer be available as of this weekend after Amazon announced it was pulling the product’s server support from AWS (Amazon Web Services) that was hosting it.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/johnpaczkowski/amazon-parler-aws?bftwnews&utm_term=4ldqpgc#4ldqpgc

The email from AWS to Parler cites several examples of violent and threatening posts made in recent days, including threats to "systematically assassinate liberal leaders, liberal activists, BLM leaders and supporters," and others. "Given the unfortunate events that transpired this past week in Washington, D.C., there is serious risk that this type of content will further incite violence," the message adds.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/01/amazon-cuts-off-parlers-web-hosting-following-apple-google-bans/

Both Apple and Google had already pulled the Parler mobile app from their online App stores after the company ignored deadlines to begin moderating content that was inciting further political violence in breach of their TOS.

People who already possessed the app could still access the service, and those who didn’t could still reach Parler via its website landing page. But once Amazon withdraws AWS hosting support on Sunday, none of the users will be able reach Parler anymore.

In a post on Saturday evening Parler CEO John Matze said it is possible the social network will be “unavailable on the internet for up to a week as we rebuild from scratch.”

In reality it’s likely to be somewhat longer than that. Only a small number of hosting services can handle a website of this size, and a good many of them will be reluctant to handle one with such a toxic reputation - Trump himself has now been kicked off Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Twitch and even Pinterest in the wake of the Capitol riot on 6 January.

Parler launched in 2018 as a "free speech" alternative to Twitter and Facebook. As of November 2020 it claimed to have around 4 million active users, and 10 million total users.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parler

Posted: **January 10th, 2021, 2:25 pm**

The only upside I can see to leaving such a platform up somewhere is that it helps law enforcement and hate group trackers (like the Southern Poverty Law Center) (or archivists like Bellingcat) to keep an eye on some of the worst whackos and give us some window into what sorts of loose bearings are rolling around inside their heads. To borrow Lomax's analogy in another thread, this shutting-down approach just leads to an interminable game of Whack-a-mole, as the whackos keep popping up in new platforms or even different media. OTOH, the numbers may drop, as the less-committed and the idle blowhards who were only up for idle venting wander off.

I also believe ennui can be a powerful force: a lot of nationalists are pretty one-note.

Posted: **January 11th, 2021, 12:16 pm**

Daily Kos is carrying a community sourced story that hacktivists broke into Parler and began siphoning large quantities of its contents a few hours before AWS pulled the plug on Parler’s web-hosting on Sunday evening.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/1/11/2008140/-Parler-is-being-downloaded-This-is-huge

They were able to do this because Twilio a third-party service pulled its support several hours before Amazon pulled theirs.

Twilio helps keep track of a website’s users and passwords. It makes it so you can build your website faster rather than worry about boilerplate stuff like logging in and password recovery, etc. Well, since Twilio announced they were severing ties, hackers were able to create administrator accounts which gave them full privileges inside Parler. This means all the videos, posts, and other media people uploaded are available and currently being downloaded...including driver’s license photos. (On Parler you can upload your driver’s license to prove you’re a citizen so you know you’re talking to real people and not random bots.)

There is a security principle called “fail-open vs fail-closed”. When Twilio said “Hey, we’re not supporting your authentication anymore Parler because you aid and abet terrorism” that means that when you try to go to Parler and log in, there is nothing checking your password to see if you’re you. When you try to log in, and Twilio isn’t available for whatever reason, you would get an error saying “Hey, uh, I dunno what happened but Twilio isn’t responding. Get out.”

Parler didn’t.

So that leaves the door WIDE OPEN. It was easy to create an administrator password, if not thousands of them to cover your tracks, and then you get access to the whole store.

There are suspicions that Parler didn’t encrypt their PIFI data or their image data with respect to licenses, or store it in a secure image bucket - Potentially one horrific security architetcure failure after another - But as the author notes, a veritable goldmine for law enforcement, and anyone else monitoring right-wing extremists.

Posted: **January 16th, 2021, 4:02 pm**

Joe Rogan commented on the authoritarian approach to control speech by systematically taking down parlor. He asked, what percentage of parlor was toxic.

I downloaded parlor. Just seemed like another twitter. I used it about 5 times over the last month, and didn't see anything toxic.

Compared to twitter, parlor is dwarfed in volume of toxicity when compared. Much of which is not being taken down. For example, the Chinese government has a doctored picture of an Australian soldier smiling and slitting a child's throat. Australian prime minister demanded it be taken down months ago.. Its still pinned at the top.

If there was any evidence of terrorist activity on parlor, its being erased. They should have kept it for the FBI to investigate. Big tech have joined together to form an oligargarchy, to control speech.

Although I didn't want to use parlor, I think it's a bad idea to celebrate its removal.

Posted: **January 16th, 2021, 8:44 pm**

The platform is called Parler (from the French Parler - 'to speak') not 'Parlor'.

It may seem pedantic to point this out, but you made the same error five times in a single post, and unfortunately it's rather indicative of just how little attention you pay to researching any topic you choose to write about.

You neither explain who Joe Rogan is, nor why you feel anything he had to say was relevant to this discussion, and as usual you didn't bother to supply any citations either.

I assume that you are referring to this guy

https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/joe-rogan-worries-parler-shutdown-explains-sets-dangerous-precedent

He is variously described elsewhere as a comedian, a martial arts sports commentator, and a Libertarian. He is also said to be an outspoken advocate of the use of Cannabis, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms and DMT.

I will make the charitable assumption that he was under the influence of all of these when he offered his considered opinion of Parler.

Posted: **January 16th, 2021, 9:11 pm**

It's worth noting that there are roughly 330,000 web hosting services in the world. If Amazon declines to serve you, then you haven't really been crushed by a tech oligarchy. And, also pertinent, these are private companies which have a right to refuse service... and certainly are reasonable to do so if, as Parler did, a client allows members to plot a conspiracy to attack and overthrow a seat of government with detailed planning messages on weaponry, tactics, and which legislators to kidnap. As well as mortal threats against the VP and legislators. Would you, if you ran a web hosting service, wish to be held legally liable for abduction and sedition? I'm going to speculate you might not. Parler went well beyond airing prickly commentary and extreme partisan opinions.

Free speech laws have never extended to the fomenting of violent sedition, or homicide, or crimes against persons generally. And no sane company would agree to provide a service that enhances such crimes. Would the media platforms Rogan has worked for allow such content even it was "only a few percent" of their programming?

Posted: **January 19th, 2021, 5:40 am**

Parler has reappeared as of late Sunday afternoon in the form of a single static web page after having been re-registered under a domain registrar called Epik which also handles the registration of other toxic sites like the white supremacist chat service Gab, and the neo-Nazi message board Daily Stormer.

https://gizmodo.com/parlers-back-from-the-dead-with-a-domain-registered-to-1846078655

The question of who precisely has taken over the task of supplying web hosting services to Parler after Amazon kicked them off AWS is answered by the screen shot above.

https://twitter.com/dtemkin/status/1351240721261584385

DDOSGuard is based entirely in Russia, so Parler, like Wikileaks (which handed over its SSL keys to a Russian host some years ago), is now a fully paid-up member of the Russian intelligence service and will be promoting Russian dezinformatsiya - as usual.

https://patribotics.blog/2017/03/14/wikileaks-hands-keys-to-putins-russian-hacker-readers-leakers-tracked/

Posted: **January 20th, 2021, 6:07 am**

According to a new CNN Business Report, many Trump supporters are excited because they believe he is about to declare martial law today, shortly before the inauguration of president Biden.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/19/tech/martial-law-trump-conspiracy-theory/index.html

The focus of this latest delusion is a Telegram account falsely purporting to be run by Gen. John Hyten, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, telling them that the moment they'd been waiting for, the moment Trump would finally act and use the military to crush his enemies, was coming.

"Nothing can stop this," the account said in a message that had been seen by at least 185,000 people as of Tuesday morning. "They can no longer hide in the shadows," it added half an hour later. Then, 20 minutes later: "Last hours." It continued on like this. Around 10 a.m. ET it posted an ominous picture of soldiers in uniform behind a fence in Washington DC with the caption "Stay in your homes."

By Tuesday afternoon, the account had almost 220,000 followers -- likely helped by the fact that it was being widely and actively discussed and promoted on other platforms including Twitter and Facebook who did not immediately respond to requests for comment. After CNN asked about the people sharing links to and promoting the Telegram channel on its platform, Twitter said it was "taking action on accounts sharing it" and would prevent the link from being tweeted further.

A spokesperson for Gen. Hyten told CNN Tuesday morning that the account is "an absolute fake" and added the Pentagon was "actively working" to get it taken down. Tuesday afternoon the account was marked as a "scam" with the message, "Warning: Many users reported this account as a scam or a fake account." The account has since shed some followers, and many of the messages have been removed.

For those who may not know, Telegram is an encrypted cross-platform messaging system that has recently become very popular with violent conspiracy theorists and right-wing extremists. The Proud Boys have recommended that their followers switch to Telegram in the wake of Parler’s shutdown.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_(software)

Telegram is currently based in Dubai, but was originally created by a pair of Russian brothers called Nikolai and Pavel Durov from St. Petersburg.

Posted: **January 20th, 2021, 3:13 pm**

Looks like the republic survived, somewhat intact. And Trump's card with the codes that activate the nuclear "football" became inactive at noon, EST. The card is called "the biscuit," so one might say he now has a limp biscuit.

Posted: **January 24th, 2021, 12:31 pm**

When hackers exploited a bug in Parler to download all of the right-wing social media platform's contents last week, they were surprised to find that many of the pictures and videos contained geolocation metadata revealing exactly how many of the site's users had taken part in the invasion of the US Capitol building just days before.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/01/this-site-posted-every-face-from-parlers-capitol-hill-insurrection-videos/

But the videos uploaded to Parler also contain an equally sensitive bounty of data sitting in plain sight: thousands of images of unmasked faces, many of whom participated in the Capitol riot. Now one website has done the work of cataloging and publishing every one of those faces in a single, easy-to-browse lineup.

Late last week, a website called Faces of the Riot appeared online, showing nothing but a vast grid of more than 6,000 images of faces, each one tagged only with a string of characters associated with the Parler video in which it appeared.

The site's creator tells WIRED that he used simple open source machine learning and facial recognition software to detect, extract, and deduplicate every face from the 827 videos that were posted to Parler from inside and outside the Capitol building on January 6, the day when radicalized Trump supporters stormed the building in a riot that resulted in five people's deaths.

The creator of Faces of the Riot says his goal is to allow anyone to easily sort through the faces pulled from those videos to identify someone they may know or recognize who took part in the mob, or even to reference the collected faces against FBI wanted posters and send a tip to law enforcement if they spot someone.

Posted: **February 1st, 2021, 10:06 am**

USA Today have published a detailed textual analysis of how words and phrases used in president Trump’s speech on 6 January were reported and echoed on the right-leaning social media app Parler in the critical minutes before a mob stormed the Capitol.

https://eu.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2021/02/01/civil-war-during-trumps-pre-riot-speech-parler-talk-grew-darker/4297165001/

Using a dictionary that researchers use to rate words for positivity or negativity, USA TODAY examined a trove of 80,146 Parler posts captured by analysts at the Social Media Analysis Toolkit before Parler went offline. The posts run from 9 a.m. when Trump supporters ramped up their Save America rally in Washington to 2:30 p.m. when the Capitol was under full siege.

In the minute between 12:15 and 12:16 p.m., Trump told the crowd to head to the Capitol and that “you’ll never take back our country with weakness. ” One minute later, a Parler user wrote: “Time to fight. Civil war is upon us.” Another wrote: “We are going to have a civil war. Get ready!!”

On the ground, the sentiment was more tactical. A Parler video that captured Trump’s voice saying “show strength” captures one man in the crowd responding, “Invade the Capitol building.” “Let’s take the Capitol,” others in the crowd shouted in the video. “Take the Capitol right now!”

During Trump’s speech, mentions of “civil war” on Parler surged to nearly four times the level the phrase was being shared previously. “Civil war” was used 40 times in the hour before 12:15 p.m., the approximate time Trump told the crowd they had to “show strength.” In the hour following his words, mentions of “civil war” jumped to 156.

To assess what was driving changes in sentiment, the news organization also examined words and phrases that gained the most as a share of Parler traffic over time.

The analysis found a pronounced decline in the mood on Parler during Trump’s time on stage. The term “civil war” moved up as a share of all phrases in use, joining a volatile mix of words in use that day focusing on election fraud and Republican leaders considered disloyal to the cause.

Along with “President Trump,” “American people” and “God Bless,” “civil war” was among the top five most frequently mentioned phrases overall on Parler between 12:15 p.m. and 1:15 p.m., as some Trump followers were already assembling in front of the Capitol. Among the fastest rising phrases after 12:15 p.m., “civil war” made No.1 – followed by “voting machines,” “president elect,” and “Mitch McConnell.”

The analysis adds weight to reports quoting attorneys for riot suspects saying Trump’s speech inspired the attack on the Capitol. Such interpretations of Trump’s words are likely to be at the center of an impeachment trial of the president in the Senate that begins the week of Feb. 8.

The speech by president Trump followed a clumsily worded prayer, and speech by his son Donald Jnr that shifted the mood of the crowd in a decisive way.

A key moment seems to have come 16 minutes into the speech, at 12:16 p.m.

“You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong," Trump told his followers, shortly after telling them “we’re going to walk down to the Capitol.”

In the moments immediately after, posts on Parler turned to calls for violence. “Time to physically fight. Civil war,” wrote one user at 12:17 p.m. “Be men fight back and f___ them up. Civil war is upon us,” wrote another at 12:18 p.m. Still another wrote, “Time to fight. Civil war is upon us,” at 12:19 p.m.

The sentiment index on Parler dropped with increased use of negatively scored words like “war,” “remove,” “treason,” “cheated,” “corrupt” and “fight,” the USA TODAY analysis shows. In his speech, Trump used the word “fight” 20 times, “corrupt” 10 times and “cheat” three times.

Another, relatively neutral pair of words also rose in popularity as “civil war” became a hot phrase: “It’s time.”

The level of equivocation was quite carefully calculated by the principal speaker as the percentage of trigger "War Words' used was carefully ramped up.

Trump himself never used the words “civil war” in his speech Jan. 6. But he used other terms that painted supporters as the only force of good standing against evil.

The crowd on the lawn consisted of “patriots,” or “American patriots,” terms many people would associate with heroes of the Revolution. Trump described the more than 100 House Republicans who were expected to reject the electoral college vote for Biden as “warriors.” He said his supporters would “defend and preserve government of the people, by the people and for the people,” adapting the phrase Lincoln used in the Gettysburg Address.

At the end of his speech, around 1:10 p.m., Trump returned to the idea of fighting for the country and urged those assembled to walk to the Capitol.

“We fight like hell,” Trump said, “and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.” He continued, “So we are going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue – I love Pennsylvania Avenue – and we are going to the Capitol.”

These were Trump’s 19th and 20th uses of the word “fight” during the speech.

Hundreds of Trump supporters were already at the Capitol by that point. After Trump left, members of the crowd at the rally began to move in that direction.

Once the riot was in full swing at the Capitol, roughly an hour after Trump left the rally stage, it was unclear how much of the Parler discussion came from users fueled by his speech and how much was driven by news footage of a mob on the attack. Regardless, some researchers said, at some point the voices online and in person started to feed one another.

“Let the civil war start today, let their blood run deep in the streets!!” wrote one user at 1:56 p.m.

“There is no political solution to this problem. Time to fight back,” another wrote at 1:58 p.m.

At 2:24 p.m.: “Better have a plan to take over the Capital Building Just storm it!!”

And at 2:27 p.m.: “Yup, time to storm every corrupt politician's home do a citizens arrest and burn their house down just for being so evil and corrupt…”

Ponnurangam Kumaraguru, a professor of computer science at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi, recently analyzed Parler messages from Jan. 6 and described Parler as an “echo chamber” that fed the crowd during the riot. It fits a pattern he’s seen increasingly in recent years.

“We are seeing a stronger relationship between social media content and the actual incidents on the ground,” he said.

Like USA TODAY’s analysis, Kumaraguru’s research identified an increase in frequency of words and phrases like “civil war,” “corrupt” and “fraud.”

Posted: **February 1st, 2021, 12:48 pm**

Yes, but mixing in what Trump said with cries from the audience is designed to paint the picture they want to paint.

He also said 'I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard'.

But they don't quote that. Why not?

I'm no fan of Trump but fair's fair.

Posted: **February 1st, 2021, 12:57 pm**

charon wrote:He also said 'I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard'.

Just how "peacefully" and "patriotically" do you feel those people made their voices heard that day ?

Posted: **February 1st, 2021, 3:01 pm**

charon » February 1st, 2021, 11:48 am wrote:Yes, but mixing in what Trump said with cries from the audience is designed to paint the picture they want to paint.

They? This is close kin to the exhortations and responses in a religious liturgy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preceswhich are intended to reinforce the collective belief. And do not, for one second, pretend that Trumpism is not a cult.

He also said 'I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard'.

Peace be with you! Show the Saracen who's boss!

But they don't quote that. Why not?

Because, at this point the action is already under way.

I'm no fan of Trump but fair's fair.

And what would that look like?

Posted: **February 1st, 2021, 3:41 pm**

Just how "peacefully" and "patriotically" do you feel those people made their voices heard that day ?

You're missing the point, aren't you? Trump is being indicted for inciting the storming of the Capitol. No one's denying he was whipping them up but his speech specifically said be peaceful. That's what is going to be said in his defence and it's undeniable.

Posted: **February 1st, 2021, 3:48 pm**

Serpent -

You used to write fairly sensible and thoughtful posts but recently you just seem to be putting a lot rather silly, flippant remarks in. So I won't answer them.

As for Trump, you've read enough of my posts to know what I think of him and his style.

Posted: **February 1st, 2021, 4:21 pm**

charon » February 1st, 2021, 2:48 pm wrote:As for Trump, you've read enough of my posts to know what I think of him and his style.

No, actually. You've brought up this lame appendage before in his defense.

You're the one missing the point of Toucana's post. There was a count of trigger words. How many times he used "fight", "strong", "take back", etc. In comparison, how many times did he use "peaceful" and "lawful"? Patriotic doesn't mean peaceful or lawful, especially when you factor in how Trump has taken every opportunity over the past six years to redefine 'patriotism' as the exclusive property of his followers. Neutral words were not counted.

It also matters when and how these expressions are used. It wasn't a printout; it was a speech - complete with gestures, grimaces, emphasis and volume.
If you lead with "peaceful" and "lawful", and then remain calm through the speech and end with: "Now, let's walk over there and make our voices heard." you get a different reaction than if you work the crowd up to a frenzy of enraged "patriotism" and hate, and then, when you're sure they're incapable of hearing anything past the adrenaline-rush, append "peaceful" for gullible apologists to quote.

Posted: **February 1st, 2021, 5:10 pm**

All of the words that were spoken matter, and so does the context, frequency, and the exact timeline in which they were uttered.

Yelling “Fire” in a crowded theatre, and then adding sotto voce “And please take care to leave in an orderly manner, and don’t trample anyone to death as you do” does not absolve you from the moral responsibility for what happens next.

Out of curiosity, did you happen to read this CNN story tonight ?

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/01/us/capitol-rioters-non-voters-invs/index.html

At least eight of the rioters so far indicted for violent disorder inside the Capitol precincts on 6th January never even voted in the 2020 presidential elections. A number of them were miiltary veterans belonging to a violent fringe group called 'The Oathkeepers'.

Think about that for a minute - These 'patriots' violently stormed the Capitol to stop the 'steal' of an election which they never even voted in to start with.

Whatever they were involved with had nothing whatsoever to do with democracy, or upholding the constitutional authority of a lawful government.

Posted: **February 1st, 2021, 9:57 pm**

I don't care about negative-only word counts and there's a difference between fiery, figurative rhetoric and illegal commands.

Posted: **February 1st, 2021, 11:04 pm**

charon » February 1st, 2021, 8:57 pm wrote:I don't care about negative-only word counts

But it wasn't. It's just that the negative words Trump used outnumber the positive words he used. That's just what he's always done. Listen to any of his speeches and count for yourself.

and there's a difference between fiery, figurative rhetoric and illegal commands.

Please to illustrate. Two examples each of "fiery" and "figurative" rhetoric, contrasted with two examples of "illegal commands" would do - preferably in the context of real world events.

Posted: **February 2nd, 2021, 12:11 am**

Serpent » February 2nd, 2021, 4:04 am wrote:
charon » February 1st, 2021, 8:57 pm wrote:I don't care about negative-only word counts

But it wasn't. It's just that the negative words Trump used outnumber the positive words he used. That's just what he's always done. Listen to any of his speeches and count for yourself.
and there's a difference between fiery, figurative rhetoric and illegal commands.

Please to illustrate. Two examples each of "fiery" and "figurative" rhetoric, contrasted with two examples of "illegal commands" would do - preferably in the context of real world events.

Okay, fair enough.

1) Who says his words were 'negative'? Read toucana's first post carefully. I think only two phrases used by Trump himself were quoted:

“you’ll never take back our country with weakness"

“show strength”

What's negative about that?

2) Fiery and figurative examples from Trump on Jan 6:

"And you have to get your people to fight".

'Fight' is figurative, it doesn't mean hit or shoot people. It means stick to your position, stand up for what you know is right... etc, etc.

" the only unhappy person in the United States, single most unhappy, is Hillary Clinton".

That's rhetoric. Obviously she's not the most unhappy person in the United States!

Illegal commands:

Trump didn't give any illegal commands but obvious examples would be 'Smash the windows, steal from the offices, beat people up, attack the police'.

Why do you want me to state the obvious?

You know I don't support Trump and his nonsense but that's a far cry from being so biased that you'll distort anything at all to make your point. And there is distortion in what you're saying.

The fact is there's so much wrong in what the man says and does that you don't need to distort it, it speaks for itself. So I'm wondering why you're bothering with all this stuff here. Is there nothing better to talk about?

Posted: **February 2nd, 2021, 12:26 pm**

charon » February 1st, 2021, 11:11 pm wrote:1) Who says his words were 'negative'?

The writer of the article, plus all of Trump's supporters who responded.

I think only two phrases used by Trump himself were quoted:

“you’ll never take back our country with weakness"

“show strength”

Also, "You have to be strong" How many times did he say those phrases, in what tone, and accompanied by what gestures, over the preceding 8 months? Five years?

What's negative about that?

The single most negative things about that is "take back", when aimed at the legitimate holders of what he had lost and wants taking back.

2) Fiery and figurative examples from Trump on Jan 6:

"And you have to get your people to fight".

'Fight' is figurative, it doesn't mean hit or shoot people. It means stick to your position, stand up for what you know is right... etc, etc.

Why do you think it means that? What is it in Trump's history or speaking style that would make the alternate interpretation more valid than the literal one? In either case, even if he had meant those other things, rather than what he actually said, it would still be negative, because they're standing against the correct, legal, orderly, democratic transfer of power.
He said "fight", over and over again, to what he knew, and we know to be a mob of heavily armed, extremist yahoos without a single figurative brain-cell among the lot - the same ones he had previously lauded for attacking civil rights protesters and hecklers at his rally. (He never did pay their court costs, btw. Reneges on every promise!)

Trump didn't give any illegal commands but obvious examples would be 'Smash the windows, steal from the offices, beat people up, attack the police'.

He didn't give details instructions on method. He gave one single, clear, unequivocal command:
Take back.

(PS I've been ignoring the personal presumption, but I'd be - literally, not figuratively - happier if you cut it out. )

Posted: **February 2nd, 2021, 12:37 pm**

You're biased and interpreting to suit your own agenda.

Posted: **February 2nd, 2021, 1:28 pm**

.adnega nwo ruoy tius ot gniterpretni dna desaib er'uoY

Posted: **February 2nd, 2021, 1:35 pm**

You're also doing what they all do, which is judging by hindsight. Knowing they stormed, stole, attacked, etc, you're making 'take back' mean that. Which is nonsense, of course.

Posted: **February 2nd, 2021, 2:53 pm**

Of course! What he really meant was :
"Let us form a sedate and orderly procession, walk to the Capitol, where the people's representatives are ratifying the ascension of my opponent through a properly conducted electoral process, and ask them politely to overturn the election, even they lack the authority, because I failed to do so by legal and illegal means, but we feel that I should continue to be president anyway.
All that steal and cheat and fight and strong language was purely metaphorical, and I can tell from your tweets that you all understand this."
It's so obvious in hindsight!

(In foreshortened hindsight, I think The Vat should delete this entire futile conversation. What childish imp goaded me to participate? It's cluttering up Toucana's thread.)

Posted: **February 4th, 2021, 5:06 pm**

John Matze the CEO of Parler has now apparently been fired by by his own board for planning to ban neo-Nazi groups

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/parler-financial-backers-oust-founder-and-ceo-matze-from-company/

The company board ousted the former executive last Friday, The Wall Street Journal was first to report. In a statement, Matze said he "met constant resistance" to his "product vision," his "strong belief in free speech," and his view of how Parler should be run, adding that he advocated for "more product stability and what I believe is a more effective approach to content moderation." Matze claimed to have been within "days" of bringing Parler back online at the time he was ousted.

Matze hoped to bring Parler back online quickly, he said, and to have it restored to both the Google and Apple mobile app stores. To that end, he proposed expanding automated content moderation on the platform as well as a full ban on people and groups tied to designated domestic terror organizations, adding, "there are a lot of neo-Nazi groups that would fall under that category."

Conservative talk-show and online personality Dan Bongino, who has invested in Parler and who is on the board, dismissed Matze's claims.

"John decided to make this public, not us," Bongino said in his online talk show. He added, "We could have been up in a week if we just would have bent the knee" to Amazon, Apple, and Google. He and the rest of the board, however, apparently have no interest in meeting tech platforms' terms. "The vision of the company as a free speech site and a stable product, immune and hardened to cancel culture, was ours."

Posted: **February 15th, 2021, 4:56 pm**

New logo for Parler 2021

Parler has reappeared online with a brand new logo under the leadership of interim boss Mark Meckler after original CEO John Matze was sacked by his own board for having the temerity to suggest that neo-Nazis and domestic terrorists should be either moderated or removed from the platform.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56071112

Would-be users are reporting certain practical difficulties in regaining access to Parler. In the first place it hasn’t yet been restored to either of the main App stores. Android users who would normally download an app from Google Play are having to side-load Parler onto their phones from unofficial sources, while the Apple App Store simply informs iOS users that Parler is “not currently available”.

Pre-existing users have reported finding that all their posts from the previous version have vanished from their user profiles in the new version - which might be no bad thing, given the numbers of users who had uploaded deeply incriminating videos of themselves committing violent acts of sedition in the Capitol on 1/6.

One public figure who has not yet opened up an account on Parler is former president Donald J. Trump. An article in Buzzfeed News reported last week that between July and November 2020, the Trump Organization was attempting to cut a deal with Parler whereby Trump would open an account in return for a 40% stake in the company’s ownership, and make it his principal social media platform.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/trump-parler-ownership

The deal was never finalized, but legal experts said the discussions alone, which occurred while Trump was still in office, raise legal concerns with regards to anti-bribery laws.

Four sources told BuzzFeed News that Parscale and Trump campaign lawyer Alex Cannon met with Parler CEO John Matze and shareholders Dan Bongino and Jeffrey Wernick at Trump’s Florida club Mar-a-Lago in June 2020 to discuss the idea. But the White House counsel’s office soon put a stop to the talks, one person with knowledge of the discussions said, ruling that such a deal while Trump was president would violate ethics rules.

Parscale was replaced as the Trump campaign manager in July.

Discussions were revived in the weeks following the election, according to two people involved, but the deal fell apart after the Capitol invasion. Following that event, Apple and Google removed Parler from their app stores, and Amazon kicked the company off its cloud hosting service, forcing the site offline.

Posted: **February 15th, 2021, 5:05 pm**

One public figure who has not yet opened up an account on Parler is former president Donald J. Trump. An article in Buzzfeed News reported last week that between July and November 2020, the Trump Organization was attempting to cut a deal with Parler whereby Trump would open an account in return for a 40% stake in the company’s ownership

I think that's what you call a Faustian pact. Although it's hard to tell which one's Faust :-)

The Science and Philosophy Forum

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