From the start, John Matze had positioned Parler as a "free speech” social network where people could mostly say whatever they wanted.
It was a bet that had recently paid off big as millions of President Donald Trump’s supporters, fed up with what they deemed censorship on Facebook and Twitter, flocked to Parler instead.
On the app, discussions over politics had ramped up. But so had conspiracy theories that falsely said the election had been stolen from Trump, with users urging for aggressive demonstrations last week when Congress met to certify the election of President-elect Joe Biden.