Parler — When all speech is uncensored and equal, truth is a murky concept
My B.S. alarms went off before I read my first ‘Parley’..this startup is in trouble
Twitter-killer?
Word on the street is that Parler is the Twitter for the Conservative crowd in response to anger over Facebook and Twitter moderation. Free speech! No more left-wing censorship! One man’s conspiracy theory is another man’s truth. Always interested in human nature, I signed up for an account.
Growing Pains
In a combination of sincere interest and snarky curiosity, the number of new accounts has exploded in recent weeks. Under similar circumstances, any social media site with a million-plus new accounts would struggle under the site traffic, data volumes, and sudden diversity in how the site is used. Parler has put itself in an especially difficult position of being ‘anti-Silicon Valley.’
“Part of Parler’s commitment to your privacy and data security means that we build almost everything in-house, coded from scratch. We avoid using off-the-rack solutions or outsourcing to Silicon Valley as much as possible, so we can keep our architecture safe from data vultures.”
Glassdoor.com indicates that Parler.com has under 50 employees. They are building almost all of their own code in-house? Are they running and scaling their own servers as well? I imagine the staff is being suffocated by issues right now.
Beyond the scaling and performance concerns, the company needs to work nimbly and quickly adjust to the new influx of users crushing the system. These users are using the site in ways the original designers never imagined. And it shows.
#Too #Many #Tags
The first impression is that it is a Twitter clone, but that is just on the surface.
Below the visual layer, there just aren’t enough tools available for users to reach whatever goals they have. Obvious user goals are to spread information as widely as possible and consume information of interest. Because #hashtags are the only tool that can be searched other than specific people, they are used and abused.
It is just a hot mess. Entries, called Parleys, are excessively tagged. The tags are varied, unrelated, and off-topic. The result is that the tagging is useless for discovery and trending.
What I didn’t find — ‘truth.’
A common thread I noted on the various Parleys was the concern that ‘trolls’ were coming on to the site to cause trouble and spread disinformation. There were two main tactics proposed: ignoring the trolls or having them banned (oh, the irony). What does a troll look like? Apparently, accounts with a photo of a middle-aged white woman and a ‘white’ American name are suspect. It seems that actually using any name is suspect. Usernames trend towards creative and ‘interesting’.
Due to the tagging and search issues, perusing #DataScience might get you some NLP implementations or a deep dive into what appears to be an obvious conspiracy theory. It’s up to YOU to decide the truth, not a moderator. The problem is, I seek out information because I’m not always sure of the truth. The typical guardrails (moderation, warnings, censorship) aren’t available to point the way. This made me suspicious of ALL Parleys.
Conclusion
Ordinarily, I might assess that Parler went prime time too soon. Other companies in that same situation have had to make adjustments to scale their operations. In this case, I think some foundational issues will cause long-term consequences. One being the anti-tech position that will stifle scaling and rolling out of desired features. Another being the lack of typical revenue streams (ads or subscriptions).
I wouldn’t recommend sharing your child’s first day of school photos on Parler. Or make any bold statements if you are sensitive. That being said, if you’re into conspiracy theories or enjoy people-watching, I see no reason not to give Parler a try. Enjoy it while it is still around.