Right-wing friendly Parler announces re-launch

BOSTON — The right-wing friendly social network Parler, which was forced offline following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, says it is re-launching. It said the service would be brought back online for current users this week with new users being able to sign up next week — and would not be reliant on “Big Tech.” The site’s homepage, however, was a single, static page whose lead post reminded viewers of “technical difficulties.” While it was possible to log in via a different variation of that URL, Parler’s iPhone app did not work, yielding a “networking error” when an Associated Press reporter tried it. Guidelines accessible on the site, dated Feb. 14, said Parler would use technology and human review to remove “threatening or inciting content.” They said a “community jury” headed by a Parler employee would hear appeals. Unfortunately, too many of our fellow technology providers seem to differ in their position on this subject.” Mattossian added that his company applauded Parler’s new community guidelines. In a lawsuit seeking to force Amazon to restore its service, Parler’s management claimed that Amazon aimed to deny Trump “a platform on any large social-media service.” That followed Twitter’s decision to permanently ban the former president from its service and similar indefinite bans by Facebook and Instagram.