Unraveling viral disinformation and explaining where it came from, the harm it's causing, and what we should do about it.
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“The Mercers, who own Parler, are billionaire oligarchs that want your data to serve their own interests,” Torba tweeted. “I'm a middle-class guy who wants to defend your fundamental human rights online. There's a big difference.”Of course, Torba has some skin in the game, given that Gab has seen a massive spike in users since Parler’s demise.
Parler was launched in 2018, but it exploded in popularity in the final months of 2020 and the early days of 2021. That’s when it became known as a home for an assortment of far-right extremists, QAnon followers, and conservative talking heads who’d either been kicked off mainstream social media platforms or left because of a perceived anti-conservative bias on Twitter or Facebook.
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