Twitter Rival With Relaxed Filtering ‘Parler’ Acquired and Shut Down

• The app was purchased by Starboard, previously known as Olympic Media.
• Parler’s use skyrocketed in January 2021 after the violence on January 6 at the Capitol.

According to a statement released on Friday, the new owners of Parler, a social networking app with lax content filtering that favored conservatives, have decided to shut it down.

The app was purchased by Starboard, previously known as Olympic Media, a digital media firm. The removal of Parler from major app stores and Amazon’s web hosting service had put it at a severe disadvantage. According to Starboard’s statement, the app would be “pulled down from operation to undergo a strategic assessment” in its present form.

Catering Only to Conservatives

It was said by Starboard that “no reasonable person” now considers a Twitter clone catering only to conservatives to be a profitable venture. Chief Executive Officer of Starboard Ryan Coyne noted that the Parler team has created a unique audience and it looks forward to incorporating that user across all of its existing platforms.

The rapper previously known as Kanye West, Ye, pushed for the purchase of the app in October. This marks the beginning of a new era for Parler. However, Parler said in November that the firm and Ye “mutually agreed” to end the selling agreement.

After the violence on January 6 at the Capitol and the subsequent banning of former President Trump’s accounts on major platforms, Parler’s use skyrocketed in January 2021.

However, the app’s popularity plummeted once it was removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play, and its website was taken down by Amazon Web Services. Although the site was brought back up with a new web server and the apps were reinstated, its popularity never recovered to its January 2021 levels.