January 11th 2021 - Murder of Parler Is Not the Crime of Passion

Parler, as expected, went offline. Seeing a web project being extinguished with such speed, precise coordination between various actors and lack of any subtlety probably represents the most spectacular display of power in 21st Century. You may like or dislike ideology and politics behind Parler, but the way that website was murdered should cause concern to anyone who thinks beyond instant political gratification.

As some who commented this situation observed, Capitol Hill riot and ideological orientation of Sillicon Valley oligarchs might have played the part, but the greatest motive, as always, can be found in old Roman saying "cui bono". Murder of Parler wasn't the crime of passion. It was based on very simple calculation – with Parler closed down, all those who might have thought about leaving Facebook and Twitter for greener pastures will think twice about adventure that might make them offline permanently. In other words, Facebook and Twitter eliminated one of their most dangerous competitors and preserved their user base and their precious data. They might say that they acted out of concern for public well-being, but, in the end of day, they acted out of their simple and petty self-interest.

All that, of course, will put bring another difficult dilemma to those who actually think about leaving Twitter. Anyone who tries setting up another social network or microblogging service now risks being branded "Trumpist" or "terrorist" and put to the same treatment as Parler. This applies to the users too, and they must be very careful in their deliberations about new situation. For many, things can get much worse before they get better

Ivan on Tech, for example, says that he returned to MS Word and abandoned Google Docs after learning that some people got deplatformed from Google and lost their documents. Everyone who is concerned about this possibility must think about such options, even those that looked harder, more expensive and inconvenient with their present state. For example, those who are concerned about their own Twitter account being taken out, might think about saving their entire Twitter feed and copying it somewhere else. Alternative microblogging services, like noise.cash, Dbuzz or upcoming Leo-based microblogging service, might play important part in that process.

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