Parler reappears with Russian help!

Parler, an online social media site that crazed Trump cultists had used to organize their insurrection against the Congressional electoral college vote count in favor of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as mandated by the U.S.Constitution, has resurfaced after being taken down. This has been done with the help of Russian servers.

Smells like Russian collusion, dang. They can't try Canada or Israel for hosting?

Quintessence said:

Do you have a reputable source/citation for this presumption? It doesn't "have to" have happened with the help of anything without actual evidence being presented.

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Parler reappears partially with the help of Russian-owned company

Suave said:

Parler, an online social media site that crazed Trump cultists had used to organize their insurrection against the Congressional electoral college vote count in favor of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as mandated by the U.S.Constitution, has resurfaced after being taken down. This has been done with the help of Russian servers.

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I see no problem. Freedom of Internet I would say. China is less free than the West. Now USA is less free than Russia (which allows parler).

And I would think that America is capable to take care of it's own personal stuff. No need to have Russian help I would say

I have never heard Putin complain that Americans are hacking Russian computers, creating problems
I did see a YouTube that Putin said something like "I would never complain if US hackers hacked us"

ETA: I am glad that social media gets more restricted, disallowing threatening others. This kind of violence only increases violence. I rather have peace

stvdv said:

I see no problem. Freedom of Internet I would say. China is less free than the West. Now USA is less free than Russia (which allows parler).

And I would think that America is capable to take care of it's own personal stuff. No need to have Russian help I would say

I have never heard Putin complain that Americans are hacking Russian computers, creating problems
I did see a YouTube that Putin said something like "I would never complain if US hackers hacked us"

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There is no such thing as Freedom of Internet with regards to violent content being posted.

Suave said:

Parler, an online social media site that crazed Trump cultists had used to organize their insurrection against the Congressional electoral college vote count in favor of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as mandated by the U.S.Constitution, has resurfaced after being taken down. This has been done with the help of Russian servers.

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The US government can't punish a country for undermining a decision made by a private company. It wasn't the US government that banned Parler. One company decided, by itself, not to continue hosting it, that's all, and nobody else stepped up, for obvious reasons.

The Russians of course simply love to see Parler helping these bearded white supremacists etc to fester away and hatch half-cocked fantasy plots. But since the US believes so strongly in free speech it seems unlikely there will be any government action against Parler.

I suppose it might become different if they could be shown to be hosting terrorist conspiracies.

Part of the problem is that with the US's current wave of anti-intellectualism, US servers have made Russian media companies billions (with a B) of dollars off rubes that consume their multitude of content farms. Russia has a better understanding of digital media and also a better understanding of cybersecurity (we just have a bunch of dinosaurs.) I doubt there's any way we *could* punish Russia in this regard even if we wanted to. Further I imagine this will improve Parler's security which will make harboring criminals much easier for them.

As it stands, maybe those ultra right wing cooks will decide to move themselves along with their platforms to Russia. I hear white supremacy and persecution of LGBT is still very much in vogue there.

Suave said:

There is no such thing as Freedom of Internet with regards to violent content being posted.

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Are there any social media free of violent content? Seems to me it's all pretty free still, although Internet Police tries much harder lately; China-like

stvdv said:

Are there any social media free of violent content? Seems to me it's all pretty free still, although Internet Police tries much harder lately; China-like

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If someone threatened someone with violence here on RF we, the staff, would be obligated not only to remove their threat but to report it to the authorities. Parler wasn't doing that. That's why their sponsors pulled out.

ADigitalArtist said:

If someone threatened someone with violence here on RF we, the staff, would be obligated not only to remove their threat but to report it to the authorities

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I never would have thought that "threaten someone" is possible, and I am at a loss how this is possible to do

Note: This is a serious reply, and my examples are extreme but were the only things I could think of, coming close to threaten someone with violence. Probably it's much more simple, but I just missed it. But I do see from your reply that it is serious business if you must report to the authorities, so I rather know what you mean with it, so that I don't coincidentally violate this Rule, being totally unaware I do it. This doesn't happen often, that I am not creative enough to figure something out. So please help me out.

I can only think of one threat that would be reasonable to report = "God will send you to Hell and you burn eternal"... that seems a real threat
(Real in the sense that God knows all IP addresses and being omnipotent has the power to do so ... and even if God does not exist then the emotional damage that is not unlikely to happen, is even real)

All the other violence seem so unreasonable/unreal, because it's virtual and we don't know each other, unless RF would share IP addresses with normal members (which it doesn't). But even then it will be a big puzzle to find the other, because they live far apart

How could we threaten someone with violence; I think of a personal attack?
Or do you mean virtual attack here?
Or do you mean like a terrorist threat, like Pakistan PM threatening to "nuke Geert Wilders" who happened to live in the Netherlands, which is a very small country, so if Wilders is the target, I would be collateral damage probably. I really felt this as a real threat, so I can understand you report such a threat

stvdv said:

I never would have thought that "threaten someone" is possible, and I am at a loss how this is possible to do

Note: This is a serious reply, and my examples are extreme but were the only things I could think of, coming close to threaten someone with violence. Probably it's much more simple, but I just missed it. But I do see from your reply that it is serious business if you must report to the authorities, so I rather know what you mean with it, so that I don't coincidentally violate this Rule, being totally unaware I do it. This doesn't happen often, that I am not creative enough to figure something out. So please help me out.

I can only think of one threat that would be reasonable to report = "God will send you to Hell and you burn eternal"... that seems a real threat
(Real in the sense that God knows all IP addresses and being omnipotent has the power to do so ... and even if God does not exist then the emotional damage that is not unlikely to happen, is even real)

All the other violence seem so unreasonable/unreal, because it's virtual and we don't know each other, unless RF would share IP addresses with normal members (which it doesn't). But even then it will be a big puzzle to find the other, because they live far apart

How could we threaten someone with violence; I think of a personal attack?
Or do you mean virtual attack here?
Or do you mean like a terrorist threat, like Pakistan PM threatening to "nuke Geert Wilders" who happened to live in the Netherlands, which is a very small country, so if Wilders is the target, I would be collateral damage probably. I really felt this as a real threat, so I can understand you report such a threat

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If someone said: "I am coming to your house and will hurt you," that would be the easiest example of the sort of thing we would report.
In the case of Parler, people were threatening politicians, and actively organized breaking into the capitol building and even coordinated efforts on which blockades to remove or bypass.

ADigitalArtist said:

If someone said: "I am coming to your house and will hurt you," that would be the easiest example of the sort of thing we would report.

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Thank you for the answer.
That is clear, although it seems to me as imaginative as saying "God will burn you in Hell". But at least I know now what I should not say
(Although an imaginative threat can always have emotional violence as result, so I am glad RF does not allow it)

ADigitalArtist said:

In the case of Parler, people were threatening politicians, and actively organized breaking into the capitol building and even coordinated efforts on which blockades to remove or bypass.

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That makes more sense to me, because they are well known names, not virtual, so that is a real threat
So, Pakistan PM threaten to nuke Geert Wilders would also fall in this category I guess. Glad to know

Anyway it's good that social media gets more strict with Freedom of Speech
People started to abuse their rights far too much, was about time to restrict it more

Thanks again for the clear answer. Not that I would ever do it, but good to know these rules

So a quick whois check, shows Parler os still hosted by epik in america.

Whois Record for Parler.com


Name Servers NS3.EPIK.COM (has 439,470 domains)
NS4.EPIK.COM (has 439,470 domains)

IP Location

- Washington - Seattle - Amazon Technologies Inc.
ASN

AS16509 AMAZON-02, US (registered May 04, 2000)
Domain Status Registered And Active Website
IP History 56 changes on 56 unique IP addresses over 16 years

Registrar History 3 registrars with 1 drop

Hosting History 7 changes on 7 unique name servers over 16 years


Response Code 500
Terms 90 (Unique: 73, Linked: 0)
Images 2 (Alt tags missing: 0)
Links 0 (Internal: 0, Outbound: 0)
Whois Record ( last updated on 2021-01-19 )
Domain Name: PARLER.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1336588_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.epik.com
Registrar URL: EPIK - Cheap Domain Names, Hosting, Domaining & more!
Updated Date: 2021-01-11T19:28:03Z
Creation Date: 1998-05-28T04:00:00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2022-05-27T04:00:00Z
Registrar: Epik, Inc.
Registrar IANA ID: 617
Registrar Abuse Contact Email:
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4253668810
Reseller:
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited EPP Status Codes | What Do They Mean, and Why Should I Know? - ICANN
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Privacy Administrator
Registrant Organization: Anonymize, Inc.
Registrant Street: 704 228th Ave NE
Registrant City: Sammamish
Registrant State/Province: WA
Registrant Postal Code: 98074
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.4252025160
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email:
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: Privacy Administrator
Admin Organization: Anonymize, Inc.
Admin Street: 704 228th Ave NE
Admin City: Sammamish
Admin State/Province: WA
Admin Postal Code: 98074
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: +1.4252025160
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email:
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: Privacy Administrator
Tech Organization: Anonymize, Inc.
Tech Street: 704 228th Ave NE
Tech City: Sammamish
Tech State/Province: WA
Tech Postal Code: 98074
Tech Country: US
Tech Phone: +1.4252025160
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax:
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email:
Name Server: NS3.EPIK.COM
Name Server: NS4.EPIK.COM
DNSSEC: signedDelegation
URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: Submitting a Complaint to ICANN Contractual Compliance - ICANN

Suave said:

Parler, an online social media site that crazed Trump cultists had used to organize their insurrection against the Congressional electoral college vote count in favor of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as mandated by the U.S.Constitution, has resurfaced after being taken down. This has been done with the help of Russian servers.

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I don't want tech companies policing free speech on the internet. Don't want people with no authority deciding what I can and can't see on the internet. Violent content is everywhere. Don't really want someone else deciding for me which violent content is appropriate and which isn't.

So good for the Russian company for providing competition in service. Demonizing folks because they are Russian or Trump supporters or whatever who are not committing violent acts themselves just because you don't like their opinion is immoral in my book.

Threats of violence and acts of violence need to be reported and dealt with by the proper authorities, not by the tech companies.

We regulate private companies all of the time. Just because they are private companies does not put them above being regulated.

Up to Congress to regulate or not, but if not, then eventually everyone will regret it.

ADigitalArtist said:

Russia has a better understanding of digital media and also a better understanding of cybersecurity (we just have a bunch of dinosaurs.)

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Is the U.S. really that far behind? I knew that big tech in the U.S. was slipping behind other countries, but I didn't realize it had gotten that bad.

Suave said:

Parler, an online social media site that crazed Trump cultists had used to organize their insurrection against the Congressional electoral college vote count in favor of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as mandated by the U.S.Constitution, has resurfaced after being taken down. This has been done with the help of Russian servers.

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Not surprising. U.S. capitalists wanted an open, global economy, and that's what they got. The internet was supposed to open up the lines of communication and bring us all closer together.

I've never seen Parler, nor have I looked at any of their content. But I'm sure it's not anything I haven't seen before, whether on the internet, on bathroom walls, graffiti, bumper stickers, leaflets - there's garbage everywhere.

ADigitalArtist said:

If someone threatened someone with violence here on RF we, the staff, would be obligated not only to remove their threat but to report it to the authorities. Parler wasn't doing that. That's why their sponsors pulled out.

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It gets convoluted when "Stop the Steal" is interpreted as violence. Or when "Biden stole the election" is interpreted as violence. And even worse when "I voted for Trump" is interpreted as violence. Or when saying "Make America Great Again" is interpreted as a terrorist act.

Interpretation is everything.

Read this message quick everyone before it's removed for inciting violence!

Given a free reign, or a little more time, Twitter will remove posts with the word "Trump" ----citing it as inciting violence.

Interpretation is everything.

In the Kingdom of God everyone will be a Democrat. But until then, we must remain vigilant and keep fighting the good fight against the Right. A little white censorship, if it leads to the Promised Land, is surely forgivable. After all, we all know the end justifies the means.



John