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By Jeff Horwitz and Keach Hagey 

As Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. have taken a harder line against unsubstantiated claims of a stolen presidential election, prominent conservatives on both platforms have responded with rage and a frequent retort: Follow me on Parler.

Launched in 2018, the libertarian-leaning social network was the most downloaded app on both Android and Apple devices for most of last week, according to data from Google and analytics firm App Annie. It is not yet clear that Parler is set to become the online home for the political right, but its leaders envision it as a free-speech-focused alternative to the giants of Silicon Valley.

The company's user base more than doubled to 10 million in under a week, making it difficult for its roughly 30-person staff to keep up with the flood of new sign-ups.

"You'd fix one thing, and another would blow out," said Parler chief executive John Matze. "We're now solid at this point."

The platform has deep-pocketed investors to fund further growth. Hedge-fund investor Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah are among the company's financial backers, according to people familiar with the matter. The Mercers, who have not disclosed their involvement with Parler, have previously financed a number of conservative causes and backed Cambridge Analytica, the controversial data firm that worked for President Trump's 2016 campaign.

Representatives for the Mercers declined to comment.

Allies of President Trump have framed Parler's rapid growth as a rebuke to major tech platforms' efforts to more aggressively label content or restrict the reach of posts that the platforms deemed misleading or dangerous. Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo announced she was quitting Twitter for Parler, where she amassed more than 1 million followers. Conservative talk show host Dan Bongino -- who is both one of Facebook's most popular content creators and an investor in Parler -- heralded its growth as "a collective middle finger to the tech tyrants."

Both of them have continued to post on Facebook and Twitter, though, raising the question of whether Parler will eventually complement or replace larger platforms with much bigger audiences.

In part, that answer will be determined by the success of Parler's business model, which eschews some of the foundational tools of social media.

Twitter and Facebook gather extensive data about the content users interact with -- and then customize what users see based on what's likely to appeal to them. When the platforms detect content that's popular among a swath of users, they promote that content into more users' feeds -- creating the sort of viral sensations social media is known for.

Parler doesn't do that. The platform doesn't use content-recommendation algorithms, collects almost no data about its users and, for privacy reasons, hasn't provided the tools to let users easily cross-post from other platforms. Parler simply shows users all the posts from everyone they follow.

While Parler's terms of service allow the app to tailor content for its users in the future, executives said they were committed to their libertarian principles.

"We're choosing to be a neutral platform," said Jeffrey Wernick, the company's chief operating officer.

Parler's hands-off philosophy could test users.

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Parler leaves virtually all moderation decisions up to individuals, allowing them to choose whether to apply filters that hide "sensitive" content such as hate speech, graphic violence and pornography. The minimal enforcement that exists -- primarily the removal of spam, threats of violence, or illegal activity -- is handled by "community jurors," all currently volunteers.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 14, 2020 15:14 ET (20:14 GMT)

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