Parler to Temporarily Shut Down, Pivot to Supplying 'Uncancelable' IT Services
Parler, the social networking site once popular with right-wing users, is dead for now. But the platform intends to live on as an IT provider powering other platforms focused on free speech.
On Friday, a company called Starboard, which owns conservative news sites, announced it had completed its acquisition of Parler. The main website and app for Parler now display a statement(Opens in a new window) from Starboard that says the service's business model was struggling to attract users.
“No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business anymore,” the company wrote. Instead, Starboard plans on using Parler to supply an “uncancelable ecosystem” of IT services for other sites and apps, a pivot(Opens in a new window) that began last year.
“By refocusing on the cloud and IT infrastructure space, [outgoing Parler CEO] George Farmer has done an exceptional job at successfully leading Parlement into a critically important industry where it has already begun to excel," Starboard added.
Hence, Starboard, which was founded in 2018, plans on using Parler’s digital assets to grow the company’s media and publishing business. But in the meantime, Starboard pulled the plug on Parler, although it could return in some form, pending a “strategic assessment.”
“We at Starboard see tremendous opportunities across multiple sectors to continue to serve marginalized or even outright censored communities—even extending beyond domestic politics,” the company said.
Parler also launched in 2018 as a free speech alternative to Twitter and received a wave of sign-ups during the 2020 US presidential election. However, Amazon, Apple, and Google briefly shut down access to the app after it was allegedly
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