Pro-Trump Pundit Bill Mitchell Calls 'Total Fail' of Parler a 'Tragedy'
Conservative political pundit Bill Mitchell has said Parler's "total fail" is "a tragedy" as the social media platform struggles to regain its popularity after it was taken offline earlier this year.
Mitchell, host of the YourVoice Network podcast, is one of a number on conservative figures who flocked to the "free speech" network after being banned from other social media sites such as Twitter.
Parler started to grow in influence before Amazon refused to host its web services on its AWS platform, while it was banned by Apple and Google because it was used to promote extremist violence and plot the attack on the Capitol in Washington, D.C., in January.
Parler's former CEO John Matze said the app would be taken offline for a few days in January so it could "rebuild from scratch."
Parler is available to download once more in the Apple App Store after it promised to cut down and remove the "hate speech" which appeared on the platform.
However, Parler now runs the risk of losing users to fellow "free speech" platform Gab and encrypted messaging service Telegram.
"The total fail of Parler really is a tragedy," Mitchell wrote on Gab. "That was a fantastic group of people over there but their management have done everything in their power to throw it all away with both hands."
Mitchell previously confirmed on Parler that he had been permanently banned from Twitter after using one account to evade the suspension of another.
Mitchell, a pro-Donald Trump commentator, said he was originally banned for seven days for suggesting wearing masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic is "medically dangerous" before being banned outright.
"Regardless, to wipe out [one] of the top Trump accounts months before the election is utter preposterous and censorship in the extreme," he posted on Parler in August last year.
Mitchell has been contacted for further comment.
Parler recently announced that it was promoting George Farmer to chief executive from CEO as part of a leadership shakeup.
"Parler began as a small, start-up company that differed from its Big Tech competitors in its commitment to the free market of ideas in the full spirit of the First Amendment," Farmer said in a statement.
"For the past two months I have worked with an incredible team of people, under the leadership of Mark Meckler, to bring Parler back online and return to Apple's App Store after we had been unfairly maligned by the media and its allies in Big Tech and Congress."
