Will Elon Musk's Twitter Takeover Slow Momentum for Kanye West's Parler?

On October 17, Parler announced it was being acquired by Kanye West, and the news was widely celebrated by many conservative voices. However, much of Parler's newfound attention was overshadowed 10 days later when Elon Musk completed his deal for Twitter.

Musk promised to return Twitter to a more open forum with less censorship, resulting in many conservatives praising the takeover. This new social media landscape also raises the question: Could the new, Musk-run Twitter bury the recent hopes of Parler?

What Is Parler?

Parler launched in 2018, but the social media platform's popularity soared in 2020 among right-wing users who enjoyed its limited content moderation in comparison to Facebook and Twitter. The company's fortunes changed, though, following the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, after reports found Parler was widely used to plan the attacks. Apple and Google both soon pulled Parler from their app stores before Amazon withdrew cloud support, resulting in the platform going offline.

A month later, Parler returned online, but many of its users had gravitated to other alt-tech websites like Gab and MeWe or encrypted messaging services like Telegram. The company gradually rebuilt some of its base, but the platform was mostly an afterthought until West—who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021—was announced as the new owner after he was locked out of Twitter and Instagram for antisemitic posts.

Ali Davachi—a technologist, entrepreneur and the ForbesBooks author of RAPID Transformation: An Outcomes-Based Approach To Drive Results—told Newsweek that Ye "has an audience on many social networks and must continue to communicate in a social network agnostic way."

"By itself it doesn't say anything about Parler," Davachi said. "Parler is just one of many digital avenues of communication."

After the initial enthusiasm expressed by many conservatives about the prospect of a less-censored Twitter under Musk's control, many soon became upset about the new CEO's plan to charge users $8 for blue checkmarks. A principal argument, which was shared by critics from both sides of the political spectrum, is that giving everybody the opportunity to have checkmarks diminished the verified, legitimate status of the symbol.

The checkmark news, along with reports of hate speech proliferating on the platform, resulted in social media becoming flooded with messages from people promising to abandon Twitter.

"There are audiences that have left Twitter, and now perceive Twitter will move to a more measured approach," Davachi said. "Ultimately, I don't think Parler or any other contender will gain anything other than marginal growth in the short term."

Jenna Ellis, a podcast host and former senior legal adviser to former President Donald Trump, told Newsweek that "Parler, in particular, doesn't even have one main voice people want guiding or disrupting the conversation like Truth Social with Trump's posts. Parler isn't newsworthy, so what's the incentive now to join or post there?"

Peter A. Gloor, a research scientist at the Center for Collective Intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, said Musk's past track record shows he could weather the initial storm of controversy he's currently experiencing.

"Against all odds, Elon has beaten with Tesla all competition; he has a good chance to repeat that with Twitter," Gloor said. "If he opens Twitter to passionate believers of more esoteric theories and extremist politicians, it will attract their loyal crowds from Parler and the like. The best times of Twitter were the four years of Donald Trump using it as a platform to rule the country. Elon will try to repeat and beat that."

Ellis also feels Musk will triumph over social media competitors and feels those that have threatened to quit will ultimately keep tweeting. She said Musk has been disrupting the "narrative by simply leveling the playing field for all speech and all ideas regardless of party or tribe."

"People who genuinely want a forum for free speech love the clash and debate, and other platforms like Parler historically don't have that same kind of interaction, especially between high profile elected officials or public figures whose political opinions are complete opposites," Ellis said. "The Left actually knows this and so even if they hate the fact they can't control the narrative, they won't leave."

She added, "The more that Musk creates an opportunity for this kind of clash and debate to thrive on Twitter, the less relevant and attractive other platforms become in the mainstream and for newsworthy content."

Newsweek reached out to representatives for Musk and Ye for comment.

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