The N-word and other racist terms abound on Parler, the social media site that became the most popular free app on Apple and Google’s app stores in the week following the U.S. presidential election.
It’s difficult to say definitively how often the offensive terms are used by members throughout the site due to the limitations of Parler’s search feature, which only brings up profile names (members), their descriptions, and hashtags in search results. The app’s search engine does not search individual posts.
But a search for the N-word this week brought up around 100 profiles. They either included the racial epithet in the profile names themselves, in their profile descriptions, or both. In searches, other racist and anti-Semitic terms brought up several profiles and hashtags. Many of the profiles were private. Among those that weren’t several had put up racist and/or anti-Semitic posts.
Discrepancy Report is posting screenshots of the profile names, descriptions, posts, and hashtags in the slideshow below. Be warned, much of the material is racist, profane, and extremely offensive:
Parler did not immediately respond to two emails sent Wednesday and Thursday seeking comment about the material.
The app, which launched in 2018, has recently seen a huge surge in popularity. The company told multiple news outlets its number of members more than doubled from 4.5 million before the Nov. 3 election to over 10 million now.
Parler has drawn several mainstream conservatives including prominent figures like Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity as well as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-California, and U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
In a July letter to Parler CEO John Matze, Jordan wrote that the company “advertises itself as an alternative to social networks, such as Twitter, that aggressively—and discriminatorily—censor their users’ speech. … While Parler does have rules and policies concerning the use of its platform by users, you have said that Parler is ‘a public square’ that does not ‘censor or editorialize’ and that ‘only … weed[s] out… pornography, threats of violence against someone, and obscene material.'”
While many mainstream conservatives have flocked to Parler, as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) notes, the app has also drawn a “range of right-wing extremists.”
The Proud Boys and QAnon followers along with anti-government organizations like the Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, militia groups, and white supremacists openly promote their agendas on the site. Holocaust-denial, anti-Semitism, racism, and other forms of bigotry are also easy to find.
Both Twitter and Facebook banned accounts affiliated with the Proud Boys in 2018. The Southern Poverty Law Center labels the organization as a hate group, a moniker its members deny.
On Oct. 15, the Associated Press reported that YouTube following the lead of Twitter and Facebook said that it was taking more steps to limit QAnon and other baseless conspiracy theories that can lead to real-world violence.
An Oct. 27 statement from Facebook detailed the social network’s crackdown on “movements and organizations tied to violence.”
“In August, we expanded our Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy to address militarized social movements and violence-inducing conspiracy networks, such as QAnon,” the statement said. “Since then, we’ve identified over 600 militarized social movements, removing about 2,400 Pages, 14,200 Groups and about 1,300 Instagram accounts they maintained, and in addition, we’ve removed about 1,700 Pages, 5,600 Groups and about 18,700 Instagram accounts representing QAnon.”
Parler, meanwhile, invites users to “speak freely and express yourself openly, without fear of being ‘de-platformed’ for your views.”
Regarding the racist, offensive material Discrepancy Report found on Parler this week, Lauren Alexander, a spokesperson for Twitter, declined to comment.
“As I am sure you can appreciate our teams are still busy at work with ongoing disputes around the U.S. election so I, unfortunately, do not think we will be able to have them review content from other services,” she said in an email. “But (I) would encourage you to review our posted rules against hateful conduct,“
Facebook did not immediately respond to two emails sent Thursday and Friday seeking comment.
