Pro-Trump social network Parler crashed after an influx of thousands of Saudi users, who are frustrated at what they say is censorship on Twitter eculliford katielpaul
SAN FRANCISCO - A surge of about 200,000 users believed to be from Saudi Arabia who are frustrated at what they say is censorship by Twitter have helped crash the small social media network Parler, which styles itself as a “free speech-driven” space.
An analysis by Reuters and Citizen Lab, a Canadian research group, found that many of the new users came from Saudi Arabia. They promoted their use of Parler with hashtags on Twitter, which they accuse of stifling expression by arbitrarily banning users. Saudis are prolific users of social networks, particularly Twitter. The kingdom has Twitter’s largest user base in the Middle East, with 11.7 million people on the platform, according to Arabic social media monitoring firm Crowd Analyzer.
U.S. right-wing social media users have flocked to messaging app Telegram and hands-off social site Gab as well as Parler, citing the more aggressive policing of controversial political comments on mainstream platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Offline, the Trump administration has forged strong ties with Riyadh, which it regards as the cornerstone of U.S. security policy in the Gulf. Trump made Saudi Arabia his first stop abroad as president in 2017.
Speaking by phone from Riyadh, Nadia, who declined to give her last name, told Reuters she was a 28-year-old woman who had studied in Australia. She said she heard about Parler from American figures on Twitter and had watched an interview Matze did with the conservative Blaze TV.
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