Following the downfall of Parler, conservatives turn to other messaging and social apps

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In the aftermath of the downfall of Parler, the go-to social app for Trump supporters, several apps and messengers experienced a large bump in new installs.

A group of apps favoring “free speech” benefited most from the fall of Parler. We’ll go over some of them below, as well as the ridiculous, but totally not surprising rise of an app called…Parlor.

The sudden rise of next-generation social networks

MeWe, a social platform that advertises itself as a next-generation social network based on trust, and one that doesn’t sell private data or serve ads, is one of the greatest benefactors of the fall of Parler. In just three days, more than a million people joined MeWe. At one point, they were adding 20,000 new members per hour. 

Before Parler’s ban, MeWe’s app wasn’t even ranked in app stores. For an app not to be ranked meant that it ranks lower than 1,500. However, just in two days, from Saturday to Sunday, MeWe managed to climb on Apple’s App Store’s Top Overall free charts to the seventh position.

CloutHub is another app that counts its blessings after the downfall of Parler. CloutHub was first launched in January of 2019, and the same as MeWe, it advertises itself as the “next-generation social network.” Furthermore, it claims that it is there to have a voice for everyone, pushing a free speech angle. 

Before the fall of Parler, CloutHub had only 225,000 installs. But then, in just a few days, the app experienced a surge of new installs. Since Wednesday, more than 31,000 people have signed up with CloutHub. As a result of this surge, the app is now ranked number 11 in the App Store. 

In the meantime, some apps also got an influx of new users. But unlike with MeWe and CloutHub, it seems that’s a case of mistaken identity.

Parler is dead, long live Parlor

Even though Parlor has nothing to do with the now eradicated Parler, people are joining it in bulks. Why, exactly? Well, there could be a couple reasons.

For one, when you search “Parler” this app comes up as a search result. That’s probably pushing a lot of people to download it. And two, people can just be really unobservant and may not realize it is a different app.

As a result of a spelling mistake, now Parlor has climbed to number 4 in the US. According to a report from Sensor Tower, Parlor has received over 40,000 downloads in December alone. All because of a typo or misspelling, whatever may be the case.

Have any thoughts on this? Surprised to see users looking for alternatives? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• A researcher has archived millions of posts on Parler as potential evidence for law enforcement
• In desperation, Parler is suing Amazon after it booted them from AWS
• Facebook is removing all references to “Stop the Steal”
• YouTube has removed videos from Donald Trump and the White House

Deep Ballu