There is a current discussion happening between the vices and virtues of both Twitter and Parler. I have some people concerned about their brands when swapping over to Parler, wanting to use both at the same time, and I've seen general complaints about Parler being hard to use.
I felt the same thing when people advocated for Duckduckgo over Google - Duckduckgo does not offer the same search functions as Google (such as being able to historically search for articles created between certain dates from years ago), however people should use Duckduckgo.
I've also seen complaints about Parler becoming a potential right-wing echo chamber, which is ridiculous considering that Twitter is very much a left-wing echo chamber as is. Every single Twitter trend is left-wing in focus, all of the news is left-wing in focus.
Echo chambers have always been the case, regardless of whether or not people want to admit it. Fan bases, for instance, are ultimately echo chambers - if I go onto a forum for a video game, I'm going to see a lot of positive video game talk, and maybe 1 rant thread.
Eventually people leave the fan bases or whatever if they are feeling disenfranchised, then they will move onto a competitor or a different fan base. This is just standard stuff. As such, you currently see people wanting to leave Twitter for an alternative.
This is made two-fold for a very simple problem - the concept of free speech on the internet. You have other alternatives such as Quodverum and Gab, however you could not post what you can post on Gab onto Quodverum, despite its claims of being welcome to all ideas.
However, flip side, Gab also has ended up with the reputation of the social media equivalent of 4chan. This has led to multiple banks moving away from Gab, and tons of other issues. However, Gab did work on the background of its site and give the ability to add video, et cetera.
Then you also have Locals, which I am not super familiar with. However, with the combination of Locals, Gab, Quodverum and Parler, realistically speaking you should be able to find a "home" for you somewhere, it doesn't necessarily have to be one or the other.
The claim of a potential right-wing echo chamber is ultimately insane - you have four different options, all of which claim to promote free speech "as long as it is within US law". However, as mentioned, the four options will all have different moderation rules.
My problem with social media claiming to promote free speech is simply this - a true free speech website would, essentially, abandon all moderation entirely and allow people to post whatever they want. However, "negative news gets the views", so the bad stuff becomes pronounced.
This is the reason why 4chan has been able to get away with it - anonymous posting, everybody is called "Anon", multiple different topics, et cetera. It's marmite, either you're into it or you're not. But the stuff on 4chan cannot be posted on the other social media sites.
My point is that there is no actual free speech on the internet, no matter how hard you try. If anything, you're going to create an echo chamber regardless - it is a competitor, it will work, it DOES NOT have to have every single person on it immediately.
The only reason Twitter has become "popular" at all is because of Trump, we all know this. You can historically find tweets from 2013, 2014, 2015, where the total amount of likes is about 1,000, not the constant 25,000 we see every day now.
However, Twitter has censored or altered the President's tweets a few times now, and have banned so many conservatives throughout the last four years (whether big accounts, anonymous accounts or whether suspension was reversed as a "mistake"). They also apply the rules unevenly.
That is why I would recommend you create an account on ONE of the alternatives, no matter which one. Do not be concerned about your followers, you will build a new list if you are interested in it. If you use Twitter as a news source, then followers don't actually matter.
However, I would also recommend that you create your new account using an anonymous identity. End cancel culture by being impossible to find.
When I say "anonymous identity", I mean do not use your own photograph. Do not use your own phone number. Do not use any of the things that can be traced back to you.
This has been my talk on social media.
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