Today is as good a time as any to remember that the internet can always get worse. Parler, the right-wing social network that was once kicked off the net for its role in the January 6 Capitol riots, is entering the clouds. The revived version of the platform has acquired Dynascale Inc., a web hosting and cloud service company based in Irvine, California.
The platform is also rebranding as Parlement Technologies, as part of the purchase, setting the stage for a pivot and expansion from simply “conservative Twitter,” to conservative web services.
“We are entering a new era as Parlement Technologies, one that goes far beyond the boundaries of a free speech social media platform,” said CEO George Farmer, in a Friday press release announcing the merger. “We believe that Parlement Technologies will power the future. And the future is uncancelable,” he added.
The company also announced it received $US16 ($AU23) million in Series B funding, and has accrued $US56 ($78) million in funds to date. Which is what enabled Parler to purchase Dynascale, and its 5o,000 square feet of server space.
Since its inception, Parler has prided itself on its hyper-lax moderation, which allows “free speech” to flourish. Parler’s app was ejected from the Apple and Google stores, and the entire site was kicked off Amazon Web Services in the aftermath of January 6, after it became clear that many of the would-be insurrectionists had used the platform to coordinate.
Parler was reborn just a few months after it’s de-platforming, thanks to a large dose of funding from conservative donor, Rebekah Mercer. Just two weeks ago, Google allowed the back-from-the-dead app back onto its Play Store.
Other far-right, often hate and conspiracy-filled websites, have faced similar fates in recent years, too — getting booted from mainstream hosting, only to reemerge elsewhere.
Most recently, Kiwi Farms, an offshoot of 4chan and hate speech hotbed, was pushed from a series of web hosts to its new home with VanwaTech. The neo-Nazi site, Daily Stormer, was kicked off of GoDaddy and Google after the Charlottesville white supremacist rally in 2017. And conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has had his content banned from multiple large platforms.
Presumably, the new Parlement Technologies is angling to become a niche provider of web services to such sites and personalities, with the help of Dynascale’s existing infrastructure.
“We’re honoured to serve as the anchor for building out what will become an entire ecosystem to secure business infrastructure and help amplify free speech platforms,” the former president of Dynascale Inc (and now an executive at the merged brand), Igor Shalkevich, said in the press statement.