The Parler ban has become somewhat of a Rorschach test for one’s political beliefs, with the American left generally supporting it as a triumph of free enterprise and the American right generally denouncing it as a step towards authoritarianism. I thought it would be interesting to see how Chinese-speaking Twitter users viewed the ban. Most native Chinese speakers on Twitter belong to one of several groups. Many are from Hong Kong or Taiwan, which constantly have their freedoms threatened by the Chinese Communist Party. Some live in China, where Twitter is banned, and access the platform across the Great Firewall with a VPN. Others are part of the international Chinese diaspora, meaning they likely have family and or friends in China. By virtue of their proximity to the world’s most powerful dictatorship, members of these groups have a more concrete understanding of authoritarianism than non-Chinese Americans do. Most of us in America have never experienced authoritarian government or anything close to it.
Kevin and friends - Parler was not shut down to silence unpopular speech. It was shut down because many Apple and Google (and many others) believed that the January 6th attack on the US Government (a shocking crime) was planned in online forums. The group that planned it was known to use Parler. This group was expected to plan future attacks (at Biden's inauguration, for example). That is why Parler was delisted - to make it harder for a criminal group to meet and plan future crimes similar to Jan 6.
The people who planned the attacks could still post their comments on all other social media (if they were not vulgar or threatening in what they posted) - the speech and ideas were not blocked, but the private meeting place to plan a crime was blocked.
Kevin and friends - Parler was not shut down to silence unpopular speech. It was shut down because many Apple and Google (and many others) believed that the January 6th attack on the US Government (a shocking crime) was planned in online forums. The group that planned it was known to use Parler. This group was expected to plan future attacks (at Biden's inauguration, for example). That is why Parler was delisted - to make it harder for a criminal group to meet and plan future crimes similar to Jan 6.
The people who planned the attacks could still post their comments on all other social media (if they were not vulgar or threatening in what they posted) - the speech and ideas were not blocked, but the private meeting place to plan a crime was blocked.