Parler’s parent company recently announced that Kanye West (who is legally known as Ye) plans to buy the alternative social media site. The move comes after Twitter and Instagram restricted West’s accounts in response to a series of anti-Semitic comments he made earlier this month.
Parler is one of several new options in the social media universe, many of which explicitly present themselves as alternatives to more established platforms, particularly opposing the restrictions on free speech they say are prevalent on social media sites. others.
A recent Pew Research Center report looked at Parler and six other alternative social media sites (BitChute, Gab, Gettr, Rumble, Telegram and Truth Social) that have built small but generally satisfied communities of news consumers. Amid news of West’s potential acquisition of Parler, here are facts about the platform, based on recent research:
This study explores alternative social media sites as an evolving part of the news and information landscape using a multi-method approach. The seven sites studied are: BitChute, Gab, Gettr, Parler, Rumble, Telegram and Truth Social. Sites were included in the study if they had publicly accessible posts, were mentioned in news media, and had at least 500,000 unique visitors in December 2021.
The survey portion of this analysis was conducted May 16-22, 2022, among 10,188 US adults. All those who completed the survey are members of the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. That way almost all American adults have a chance of selection. The survey is estimated to be representative of the US adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, party affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP methodology here. Respondents were asked about their familiarity with each of seven social media sites: BitChute, Gab, Gettr, Parler, Rumble, Telegram, and Truth Social. Those who reported hearing about these sites were also asked if they use the sites and get news there, how they feel about them, and more.
The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 10,188 respondents is plus or minus 1.6 percentage points; the margin of sampling error for the 587 alternative social media news consumers is plus or minus 7.0 percentage points; and the margin of sampling error for the 131 Parler news consumers is plus or minus 13.7 percentage points.
The audit of alternative social media sites was first conducted in April 2022. To conduct the analysis, a team of researchers were trained on a variety of variables that examined each site’s features such as its privacy and moderation policies. The researchers reexamined each site in August-September 2022 (Parler was also reviewed in October 2022) and updated the findings with any changes.
The account content analysis examines a sample of 200 accounts featured on each of the seven sites included in this analysis, for a total of 1,400 accounts examined. Featured accounts were drawn from the 5% of accounts with the highest number of followers on each site. A team of trained researchers analyzed these 1,400 sample accounts to determine who runs the account, their political orientation, values and other characteristics. For more details on how accounts were identified and sampled, read the methodology.
The content analysis of posts examines the topics discussed and sources cited in 585,470 posts published in June 2022 by 1,400 sampled accounts (only 1,147 of these accounts posted at least once that month). The researchers used a set of unique keywords to identify posts about five different topics – abortion; guns, gun control and shootings; the January 6 attack on the US Capitol; LGBTQ issues; and vaccines. The researchers looked at unique two- and three-word phrases that were commonly used in posts about each topic. The researchers then examined the unique domains linked to in these posts to identify the types of resources these accounts were using.
Here are the questions used for the report, detailed tables and methodology.
This is the latest report in the Pew Research Center’s ongoing inquiry into the state of news, information and journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation .
- Parler is the most popular of the seven alternative social media sites surveyed in the Center’s latest survey, with 38% of American adults saying they’ve heard of it. That said, only 1% of Americans say they regularly get news on Parler. Overall, only 6% of Americans regularly get news from at least one of the seven sites studied, and no single site is used for news by more than 2% of American adults.
- A review of the site’s moderation features revealed that Parler moderates user content at least to some extent (beyond spam and legal requests). Parler’s app was removed from the Google and Apple app stores after the January 6, 2021 riots at the US Capitol because organizers reportedly used the app to help plan the event. The app returned to every store only after adding the moderation features required by Google and Apple.
- Among regular news consumers on Parler, 69% say they expect news and information there to be mostly accurate, while 30% expect it to be mostly inaccurate.
- Among those who regularly get news on Parler, 66% say news on Parler helped them better understand current events, while 12% say news there makes them more confused about current events. Others say the news there doesn’t make much of a difference.
- About half (52%) of those who regularly get news on Parler say they are very or somewhat satisfied with the experience of getting news there, while 27% are very or somewhat dissatisfied and the rest give a neutral rating.
- Among those who regularly receive news on Parler, 55% say they interact with news posts at least sometimes, and 38% say they post news themselves on the site at least sometimes.
- In a review of a sample of the 200 most prominent accounts on Parler (chosen from those with the largest number of followers), 86% of prominent accounts are individuals and 9% are organizations.
- When it comes to other values or appeals that these 200 accounts have prominently in their profiles, 68% have a reference to some sort of value or political orientation or identity appeal. Just under half (44%) have a reference to being right-leaning or pro-Trump, 23% have a reference to patriotism or a pro-American message, and 19% express a religious identity.
- What are people talking about in Parler? A review of posts from these 200 prominent accounts from June 2022 found that 64% of accounts posted about guns and gun rights, 54% posted about the January 6 attack on the Capitol, 54% posted about abortion , 46% posted about LGBTQ issues and 38% posted about vaccines.
- About one in ten prominent Parler accounts (12%) had their account banned or demonetized on another social media site (ie, their access to revenue-sharing partnerships like advertising was revoked). This is lower than the share on BitChute (35%) and Rumble (22%), but comparable to the share on Gettr (13%), Gab and Telegram (12% each).
- In terms of user privacy, Parler allows users to control who accesses their posts and comments on their posts, and gives users the ability to modify their privacy settings. Parler also says it won’t sell user data and has no third-party ads.
- Parler has several streams of income. The platform is exploring crypto as a source of revenue through a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace it hosts, called DeepRedSky, which features NFTs from Parler itself as well as partners like The Babylon Bee. Parler also generates revenue through merchandise.
- Overall, about two-thirds of those who regularly get news from at least one of the seven alternative social media sites (66%) identify as Republican or lean toward the Republican Party. This is much higher than the percentage who identify as Democrats or weak Democrats (33%). In comparison, those who get news on at least one of the three largest social media sites studied — Facebook, Twitter and YouTube — are more likely to be Democrats or Democratic-leaning than Republicans.
Note: Here are the questions used for the report cited in this post, detailed tables, and methodology.
Galen socks is a senior computational social scientist focusing on journalism research at the Pew Research Center.
