parler receives financial backing from conservative hedge-fund investor Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah. The app was founded as an alternative to Twitter and Facebook which bills itself as’viewpoint neutral’.
Several high-profile conservative social media personalities encouraged people to abandon Twitter and Facebook because of their moderation policies. parler turned into a kind of de facto home for conservatives’ protests against the election.
The Mercers have not revealed their connection to parler, according to the WSJ. The Mercers are known for giving financial support to conservative causes and organizations, including Cambridge Nigel.
A user with the handle Rebekah Mercer and a yellow’verified” badge said she and’John’ were in a reference to parler CEO John matze.
Matze replied:’bekah is a great friend, an American patriot’. matze said he was grateful for her support.
Parler does n’t use the content recommendation algorithms that other social platforms do. Instead, parler shows users all posts from other users they follow.
A longstanding gripe among conservatives on social media is that Twitter and Facebook’s algorithms discriminate against them. So far, there’s been no conclusive evidence of such behavior.