Parler, social media site sidelined after January 6, plans to return

Parler, the social media platform popular with right-wing audiences that was removed from app stores around Jan. 6, 2021 after calls for violence, will relaunch early next year, the company’s new owners announced Monday.

“We are committed to bringing Parler back online,” Ryan Rhodes, Parler’s new CEO, said in a statement. The app was discontinued in April after it was purchased by Starboarda digital media company.

Mr. Rhodes, Elise Pierotti, previously the company’s chief marketing officer, and a third partner, Jaco Booyens, bought the company last week, Ms. Pierotti said.

Parler, which billed itself as a platform for “uncancellable free speech,” attracted millions of supporters of former President Donald J. Trump and was once the most downloaded app in Apple’s App Store. But tech companies withdrew their support for the platform shortly after the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol, saying the company was not doing enough to combat police posts that incite violence or crime.

Apple and Google have banned the app from their app stores and Amazon has booted the company from its web hosting service. The platform was effectively banned from the app stores on virtually all smartphones in the world, but struggled to maintain its user base. It was later restored to both the Apple and Google app stores.

Now the app is positioned to return as Trump seeks to become president for a third time. The relaunch is scheduled for February.

Mr. Rhodes said Parler’s new management would take steps to “keep harmful content such as terrorism, child pornography and human trafficking from our platform.”

Mr Rhodes added that the latest version of the platform would not aim to compete with Truth Social, the conservative social media company founded by Mr Trump. That site has dominated the conservative social media space in Parler’s absence, supplanting rival platforms like Gab, Gettr, MeWe and Minds.

Parler said in a statement that it would emphasize “a return to its roots as a robust marketplace of ideas.”