Parler, the self-styled “free speech” social media app popular with conservatives, made a less-than-triumphant return to Apple’s App Store in May after being forced offline in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, racking up one of its worst months in more than a year and attracting fewer than 4% of the users that flocked to it in the days before it was deplatformed in January. Key Facts
Around 32,000 users downloaded Parler from Apple’s App Store for the first time since it returned to digital shelves on May 17, according to data from app analytics firmIn terms of attracting new users, it is the platform’s worst month since April 2020, when it was downloaded a total of 8,800 times, excluding months it was removed from the App Store.
While the recent figures do not represent a full month, the first ten days of January saw around 870,000 new users install the app on Apple devices amid an influx of users seeking refuge from perceived conservative censorship on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Interest in Parler waned as the month progressed, with data from Sensor Tower showing around two thirds of new downloads to have occurred in the first five days of the app’s return. Parler, a self-styled haven of free speech that has become a hotbed of right-wing content, faced a wave of deplatformings in the days following January’s
Well, that and the Trump blog seem to be doing quite well....