The social media app, “Parler”, which is an app that allows for all types of speech on its platform outside of incitement of violence, has been banned from the app store. In addition to being banned from the app store, it has also been banned from the google play store making it extremely hard, if not impossible to download the platform on certain devices. And, if that isn’t enough, AWS also banned Parler from using their web services, which has forced the site to shut down for the foreseeable future, with the owner of the site recently stating that they may never be able to get their platform back up, but that he is optimistic.
The reason cited for the banning of the app all can be summed up by Amazon’s statement that some posts “clearly encourage and incite violence [and]... pose a very real risk to public safety.” Some of the platforms that banned Parler specifically cited the recent riot in the Capitol, saying that Parler played a role in giving these rioters a platform to organize and prepare for the riot on. If those are the standards that these Big Tech companies use to decide who they will ban, then Facebook and Instagram should also be banned. According to the Washington Post, “Facebook was a hub for organizers of protests...including when armed demonstrators entered the Michigan Capitol.” Or maybe Twitter should be banned for having users consistently make death threats to Rep. Ilhan Omar according to the Washington Post.
I don’t think that any of these companies should be banned because they are not responsible for the messages sent out by their users. Obviously, they should do their best to get rid of comments that incite violence, but it is impossible to go through every single comment on platforms with millions of users, especially when you’re a start-up company like Parler without the resources of a mega-tech corporation.
All of this banning happened right after Parler reached number one on the app store, which part-owner John Matze thinks is no mistake. He thinks that this was all a “coordinated attack by the tech giants to competition in the marketplace”, adding that it was done because the company was “too successful, too fast”. Matze also said that in addition to being banned from all of the platforms listed above, the app was also ditched by a plethora of vendors from text messaging services and email, to their lawyers. He thinks that no other vendor is willing to work with them because they are afraid to go against the tech giants of apple, amazon, and google.
I am not saying that these companies are doing anything illegal by banning Parler, although there is an argument to be made that these companies are practicing crony capitalism and monopolistically colluding against Parler. What my point is is that these companies are destroying the culture of free speech. They are effectively normalizing the banning of people for their ideas and thoughts on platforms that symbolize and are the modern-day public spheres where most people interact. There is obviously a line to be drawn between free speech and incitement of violence, but all of these tech giants don’t ban other information platforms for similar sharing of posts that incite violence as described earlier. This type of censorship is something that you would think to see in a communist country done by dictators, but not in America.
Destroying the culture of free speech will eventually lead to the destruction of the law of free speech in our country because “politics is downstream from culture” (Andrew Breitbart). We cannot allow one of the fundamental parts of American society (freedom of speech) to come to an end. Freedom of speech is part of the reason that America is the greatest country in the world, and the American people need to unite on this idea in order to keep America great.
What do you think about the way Parler was treated by Big Tech companies? Was it fair or unfair? Should other platforms like twitter be treated similarly to how Parler was treated? How do you think that this affects the future of our country? Are you afraid of the power of Big Tech? And feel free to tell me why you agree or disagree with any positions that I took in the comments.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/236550/percentage-of-us-population-that-own-a-iphone-smartphone/
https://www.hoover.org/research/rise-crony-capitalism
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/13/facebook-role-in-capitol-protest/
Hey, Isaac what’s up!
ReplyDeleteI think this blog was very well written. You got your argument across very well, came off as unbiased (to me at least), and used many different credible sources. I agree with you that if these are the standards at which we are holding, then Twitter and Facebook should also be banned. Personally, I believe that Parler was banned because it was a big conservative/right-wing platform that was growing rapidly. Does anyone disagree with me? Can someone else maybe provide an explanation of why Parler is being held to these standards, but other big tech companies that are on the left are not?
Hi Isaac, I thought your post was interesting to read! I also believe that free speech is incredibly important and shouldn’t be taken away from us. However, I personally think that taking down Parler was a good idea for the time being.
ReplyDeleteThis is also a response to Ethan's questions as I agree with both of you that all social media platforms have some dangerous posts online, but Parler’s moderation system in taking down hundreds of threats and identifying users is not up to par compared to Twitter or Facebook (according to Google, Amazon, Apple, and the New York Times). I think a big part of it is also due to the recent attack in the Capitol. Parler was a main source for planning the attack in the Capitol, including specific blueprints of Washington, D.C. and the Capitol. These were not taken down by Parler according to The Washington Post. Also, it is known that these radical Trump supporters are planning many more attacks, attempts to hurt/kill people, and cause problems.
If Parler is known to be an app with a mainly conservative/right-wing demographic, especially since it hit number one after many Trump supporters fled from Twitter to Parler after Trump’s account was taken down, I’m thinking that taking Parler down was probably supposed to act more as a safety precaution. I obviously think conservatives and Trump supporters still should have the ability to voice their opinions online and interact with each other. Nonetheless, due to the high amounts of plans for attacks and specific threats to harm public officials that were not being taken down on Parler, it is safer to close this app until the moderation policy is stricter in my opinion. When free expression becomes violent expression, I believe you need to do something about it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/technology/apple-google-parler.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/12/parler-data-downloaded/
Thanks for the comment Dori. I completely agree with your last that when free speech becomes violent expression you need to do something about it. But I don't think that taking down a whole platform that is arguably one of the only place right now that conservatives can voice their opinions publicly online is the correct solution. If it were, then should we also take down amazon for selling t-shirts that say "kill all republicans" or should we take down facebook for also playing a role in allowing capitol rioters to organize? My point is that by taking down Parler, these companies set a standard that they will not allow any platform to use their services if that platforms has users that are inciting violence, but that standard is not being applied equally. So, while I don't think Parler should have been taken down because it wasn't able to take down violent posts fast enough, I do think that if it were taken down because of a certain standard, than that standard should be applied equally to other companies. Violent speech by a few users is terrible, but no speech for all users is much more dangerous.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/13/facebook-role-in-capitol-protest/
Hi! I’m not exactly sure if this is Isaac or Ethan responding, but thank you for your response. I do see your point that all social media platforms have some hateful content. However, social media platforms like Twitter have been banning thousands of posts and accounts that are violent, while Parler has not taken down posts nearly to that scale. In fact, an article in the Washington Post discusses the differences between moderation systems, saying “Twitter, like Facebook, employs a small army of content moderators, paired with artificial intelligence technology, to seek out and remove posts that violate its terms of service. By contrast, Parler relied largely on a system of volunteer jurors to remove content deemed offensive... according to its filing, Amazon deemed that approach insufficient, and a breach of the acceptable use policy for its customers that bars content that, among other restrictions, ‘may be harmful to others.’” I’m not saying that I think Parler should be taken down permanently, but I believe they need to be improving their moderation system. Also, I don’t see any shirts on Amazon that say messages like “kill all republicans,” and I doubt they would allow that type of merchandise or keep it online. In terms of Facebook, they received substantial public criticism for allowing threatening, violent posts, which also decreased the value of their publicly traded stocks. As a result, Facebook has taken specific measures to curtail “hate speech” and has taken down various posts that encourage violence. Parler, on the other hand, has not taken the same responsibility for monitoring and deleting posts. This is the information I have gathered as well as my opinion, but I appreciate hearing different perspectives on this matter!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.npr.org/2020/11/05/931794937/facebook-removes-pro-trump-group-urging-boots-on-the-ground
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/13/amazon-parler-takedown/
That was me (Isaac) who commented that. I'm not sure why it keeps saying unknown. Sorry about that. My point wasn't that all social media platforms have hateful content. My point was that all social media platforms have posts that incite violence. Now to your point that twitter takes down posts that incite violence to a much larger scale than Parler, I completely agree. But the obvious reason for that is because Twitter has 165 times the number of users as Parler, so obviously they take down more violent posts because there just are a lot more violent posts. And to the fact that Twitter uses much more resources than Parler when it comes to taking down posts that incite violence, I agree to a certain extent that Parler should allocate more resources to detecting posts that incite violence, but in the same NPR article that you cited, the owner already committed to doing exactly that. The only problem they face is that they don't nearly have the money that Twitter has in order to beter detect those kinds of posts just because they are a smaller company. This is the definition of acting as a monopoly in my opinion because a few larger companies are not letting a smaller company exist because they are a small company and don't have the same resources as the larger companies. And, even twitter with unlimited resources still has a lot of posts that threaten and incite violence, so who sets the standard for the amount of posts that you are allowed to have that incite violence before you get banned by Amazon? Also, regarding the "kill all republicans" shirt, Amazon took it down recently, but they allowed it to stay up for a good amount of time. And I'm not saying that Amazon is responsible for it, I was just saying that even Amazon has products that incite violence. The only way that I would support all of these big tech companies taking down another company is if they have definitive proof that the other company knew about posts that incited violence and decided to keep it up. So if you can prove that to me about Parler, than I would agree that Parler should be taken down.
ReplyDeleteJust to be clear, I only think Parler should be taken down if it was the company as a whole that decided to knowingly leave up violent content. If it was just one person than I don’t think Parler should be taken down, I just think that that person should just be fired from the company.
ReplyDeleteHi Isaac. Just to respond to your last message, Parler is back up as of Sunday, January 17 and is expected to be fully operational by the end of January. It’s known that there are three “domestic terrorist” groups that have used Parler to plan violent attacks: The Proud Boys, The Oath Keepers, and The Three Percenters. These extreme right-wing groups have overwhelmingly been drawn to Parler more so than either Facebook or Twitter. Also, Twitter has labelled hundreds of posts as misinformation or disputed information. Parler has not been willing to do this. With Trump’s account taken down on several social media platforms, along with other allies, it is reported that misinformation dropped by a staggering 73%.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/16/misinformation-trump-twitter/
I just thought some of these extra facts would help you see my perspective more in some of my hesitations regarding the activity on Parler. Nonetheless, I just hope that in being up and running again, Parler will have stricter policies in taking down more posts that incite violence and are full of misinformation! Thank you for sharing your opinion, I thought this conversation was interesting.