The sudden presence of GOP figures on the alternative social media platform has caused concern the site could turn into a right-wing "safe space" with little influence.
Republican lawmakers and President Donald Trump’s high-profile Fox News allies are flocking to Parler, the purported unbiased alternative to Twitter — and the MAGA internet isn’t crazy about it.
The MAGAfication problem is so bad that CEO and founder John Matze has openly begged progressive pundits to join the platform, offering a “progressive bounty” of $20,000 to any left-wing influencer with a following of 50,000 or more users on Twitter who makes an account. And with even establishment conservatives like Sens. Lindsey Graham and Mitt Romney eschewing Parler for now, Trump supporters worry that Parler’s influencers will be preaching to a MAGA choir forever.
Adopters have found benefits to the Twitter alternative: It isn’t lousy with white nationalists, like the niche social media site Gab; it has a better user interface than the encrypted messaging service Telegraph; and its commitment to making both sides equally heard is heaven to the ears of people constantly worried that Big Tech, their so-called liberal nemesis, is about to deplatform them.
“Every time conservatives try to build the conservative MoveOn or the conservative YouTube or the conservative …. whatever, it never works,” said Matt Lewis, a Trump-critical conservative columnist at the Daily Beast. “This feels like an attempt to re-create the conservative version of Twitter. Maybe it will work out this time, but the track record isn’t good.”
“Until those people start getting on, I think it’s going to be insular,” said Jack Posobiec, a MAGA personality, former Pizzagate proponent and a correspondent for the pro-Trump One America News Network. “And that’s OK. People do like to be able to feel safe. People kind of feel like they’re at a party right now. But the energy of Twitter comes from having different communities on it. And that energy isn't there right now. Right now, Parler feels like a Trump rally.
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