Parler app once hailed as conservative Twitter alternative yanked by new owners

Parler, a social media app that with low content moderation measures that catered to conservatives, will be taken down by its new owners, according to a Friday announcement. 

The app was acquired by the digital media company Starboard, formerly known as Olympic Media. Parler had been floundering after it was briefly pulled from mainstream app stores and Amazon’s web hosting service

Starboard’s announcement said that the app as it is “currently constituted will be pulled down from operation to undergo a strategic assessment.”

“No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more,” Starboard said in the announcement. 

Ryan Coyne, CEO of Starboard, said the team at Parler “has built an exceptional audience and we look forward to integrating that audience across all of our existing platforms.”

The acquisition, and the next chapter for Parler, comes after Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, made a push to buy the app in October. By November, however, Parler said the company and Ye “mutually agreed” to terminate the intent of sale. 

Parler’s usage spiked in January 2021 after the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and subsequent bans on former President Trump’s accounts on mainstream platforms. 

But the app faced a sharp decline in usage after it was pulled from Apple and Google’s app stores shortly after, as well as its site pulled by Amazon Web Services. The site later returned online with a new web host and was restored to the app stores, but its traffic never reached its January 2021 peak.