With Parler down for the time being, those banned from mainstream platforms, free speech advocates, the far-right and — as is often the case — those who are some combination of the three have been looking for a new safe space online. And Neo-Nazis are rolling out the red carpet for these disgruntled netizens by inviting them to their Telegram channels, in hopes of winning them over to their cause.
Nicknamed “conservative Twitter”, the alternative social media platform Parler was unceremoniously kicked from the Apple and Google app stores before being booted from Amazon’s Web Services earlier this week.
While the platform’s owners have reportedly found an alternative hosting solution, the site remains down for the foreseeable future.
Without a lightly-moderated, friendly space like Parler, many of those who have already been booted or are shunning mainstream platforms like Facebook and Twitter are now looking for an alternative space to congregate online.
One of these spaces that has emerged as an alternative is Telegram, the encrypted messaging service. On Wednesday the service sent out an alert claiming that they had added more than 25 million new user in the past three days.
It’s during this transition that Australian independent far right researcher Kaz Ross noticed members of various international extreme right wing communities are actively recruit trying to Parler refugees onto their own channels.
Read the article by Cam Wilson in Gizmodo.