Thursday, July 2, 2020

A Note on the Social Media Service 'Parler'


Following my notice that I had joined Parler and that it would be a competitor to Twitter, I have received several emails along the lines of this one:
Thought you should know that parler is no better than twitter when it comes to canceling accounts.
There were others in emails that questioned the terms of service at Parler.

Look, Parler could very well be canceling some accounts but I really doubt they are going to be canceling anti-lefty accounts as aggressively as Twitter.

That said, I am really not paying much attention to this.

I have pointed out many times that I consider all social media sites as tools to be used to get a message out. That is all. I am not attempting to promote any of the sites.

It is very dangerous out there right now and you have to know what you can get away with at any one site. And even being careful might still result in your getting canceled.

The only thing I am looking to get from Parler (and Gab) is other outlets that may become especially handy if I ever run into trouble at Twitter.

We just have to use the tools in front of us. What dissidents were able to do via Samizdats during the very aggressive censorship in the Soviet bloc gives me inspiration that there will always be methods to get the message out.

Right now focus needs to be on refining the message rather than obsessing over the strengths or weaknesses of any tools out there to get the message out.

As for the TOS, I never read them. I have never found one that was user friendly for anything from using a vacuum cleaner to buying a car. If you end up going to court against a corporation in a legal dispute, unless you are very clever, you are not going to win.

I just always think ahead of time that I am playing by company rules---though there has been a time or two when I did surprise some corporations. I don't read a TOS in advance but when I have had a dispute, I do read them at that point just to see how good the company's lawyers are on the point of contention and there is usually something written that is sloppy or ambiguous enough to make things interesting with the problem at hand:)

 -RW

1 comment:

  1. Parler will need to behave in order to grow. Once people feel dependent on them, then they'll start to misbehave. I think the idea is that we'll occasionally just have to hop from platform to platform.

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