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Launched in 2018, social media platform Parler as 鈥渢he world鈥檚 premier free speech platform.鈥� It first made headlines as a refuge for conservative provocateurs who had been banned from Twitter for violating that company鈥檚 terms of service. Now, in the wake of the election, millions of new users have joined Parler, pushing it to the top of the App Store charts and further into the mainstream.聽

Q: How does Parler work?

From a user experience, the platform mirrors Twitter, just with different lingo. In the same way you would retweet or like a tweet, users can 鈥渆cho鈥� or 鈥渦pvote鈥� a 鈥減arley.鈥� Posts can include up to 1,000 characters, as well as images, gifs, or videos. To access certain features like direct messaging, you need to provide proof of identification.聽

Although Parler calls itself 鈥渦nbiased social media,鈥� and CEO John Matze says the site was never meant to become a conservative bastion, endorsements from figures such as Senator Ted Cruz and Fox News host Sean Hannity have raised the company鈥檚 profile as a viable right-wing challenger to Twitter. The Wall Street Journal that heiress Rebekah Mercer 鈥� whose family has backed other companies such as Cambridge Analytica, a consulting firm that worked on Donald Trump's 2016 campaign 鈥� is bankrolling the project. The company does not currently accept advertising.聽

Audrey Courty, a Ph.D. candidate studying social media and political extremism at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, says it makes sense that Parler would embrace the surge in popularity regardless of the founder鈥檚 intent. 鈥淎t the end of the day, Parler is a business,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not in their interest to just be a niche platform, but at the moment, it鈥檚 a very good strategy to get yourself off the ground.鈥�

Q: Can you really post anything?聽

No. The company says they follow the Federal Communications Commission鈥檚 guidelines on violent or obscene speech. In a post on Parler, Mr. Matze 聽the 鈥渧ery few basic rules鈥�: No pornography, no death threats, and, he wrote, no 鈥減osting pictures of your fecal matter in the comment section.鈥�

Parler claims to give users the power to moderate their feeds but experts point out that it more or less operates like a regular social media company. Parler makes it clear in the聽 it retains the right to terminate an account or remove content for any reason. While debunked claims about voter fraud and QAnon theories are flourishing unchecked, and white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideas are , some liberal users have reported from the site after criticizing the company鈥檚 legal practices.

Benedict Evans, an independent tech analyst, says crackdowns are expected on any growing platform. 鈥淓veryone is a fan of free speech until they have some users,鈥� he says.

Q: What does this mean for Silicon Valley?

It鈥檚 unlikely that Parler will replace Twitter. While its earliest champions had nowhere else to turn, today鈥檚 top Parler users have remained active on mainstream social media. Outrage over Twitter鈥檚 handling of the president鈥檚 tweets may have doubled Parler鈥檚 user base, which is now reportedly 10 million, but that is still a far cry from Twitter鈥檚 monthly active user base of in the United States alone.

But that doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean Parler is likely to disappear completely. Mr. Evans says he can imagine the company 鈥渄ibbling along鈥� for another decade if the Mercers keep funding it and it鈥檚 not torpedoed by a scandal 鈥� like a 鈥減arley鈥� leading to offline violence.聽

That鈥檚 what Ms. Courty calls dangerous speech, which most people across the political spectrum agree needs to be regulated.

鈥淲hat we can鈥檛 agree on is how to regulate it, who should regulate it, and what it is,鈥� she says.聽

So far, a group of white, male developers in Silicon Valley have been making those decisions, with little to no transparency. That鈥檚 certainly not working, says Ms. Courty, but she doubts Mr. Matze 鈥� a white, male developer based in Nevada 鈥� has the answer.