• Parler has been purchased by Starboard and promptly taken offline.
• In a statement, the new owner said that being a Twitter clone for conservatives is not a viable business.
• Starboard says that it sees Parler as an opportunity “to continue to serve marginalized or even outright censored communities”.

Conservative (or at least it was) social media platform Parler is currently offline following it’s acquisition by Starboard – formerly Olympic Media.

Heading to the Parler website now will showcase a statement from the new owners and those expecting it to remain an exclusive safe haven for conservative voices, should think again.

“No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more. By refocusing on the cloud and IT infrastructure space George Farmer has done an exceptional job at successfully leading Parlement into a critically important industry where it has already begun to excel,” the new owners write.

The argument that going woke will lead to a company going broke is disintegrating amid record profits for so-called “woke” companies. As Rolling Stone wrote in the midst of a recent Bud Light / Anheuser-Busch boycott, firms like Disney, Nike and even worker apparel brand Carhartt which stoked the ire of conservatives have seen higher profits despite boycotts.

Who would have thought that appealing to a wider number of customers would help increase profits. Clearly not conservatives who destroyed products they owned, that’s for sure.

The future of Parler isn’t certain so don’t dust off your pride flag header banner just yet.

“While the Parler app as it is currently constituted will be pulled down from operation to undergo a strategic assessment, we at Starboard see tremendous opportunities across multiple sectors to continue to serve marginalized or even outright censored communities – even extending beyond domestic politics,” Starboard wrote.

While those sure are big plans, the new owners are surely aware of the firm’s past failings. These include being botted from AWS servers for failing to properly moderate content on the platform, being scrapped from data that was used to prosecute those involved in the 6th January insurrection and rejecting Ye’s offer to purchase the platform after an anti-Semitic tirade.

At least Starboard isn’t buying a controversial platform right?

What will happen to Parler under new ownership is unclear especially with Twitter seemingly trying to court conservative voices back to the platform. Not only did Elon Musk reverse all bans shortly after taking ownership, the so-called Twitter Files are framed in such a way as to give conservative voices vindication for their bans by way of cherry-picking decisions made at Twitter over the course of its 16-year lifespan.

Parler would have to offer folks a better and more stable experience than the likes of Twitter to garner interest. Even then, it would have to have big names establishing a presence there to have any hope of achieving critical mass.

Perhaps Starboard has some magic sauce we don’t know about. Even if it does though, right now the platform is offline with no word on when or indeed if Parler will return.