[ALittleLight]

"Most importantly, we raised over $60,000 in donations from people who hoped to get special treatment within our fabled waitlist."

Isn't this basically fraud? "Hey, give us money and we'll help you get something. Nope, just kidding, we gave your money to charity and that 'something' we promised doesn't exist."

[aripickar]

It was more of a case of "Donate money to these causes and see what happens". Not fraud

[amingilani]

I'd say it's borderline fraud. They've been retweeting app screenshots with that emoji combination on it[0], retweeting people saying someone took their "username on that emoji app"[1], and directly tweeted "we’ll see what we can do about an invite" if people donated and sent receipts. And now they're using this publicity to gain employment and sell merchandise.

This team mislead people to "support causes" and is now profiting off their newfound fame. I have nothing against non-profits getting more money, but...I'm not sure if I'm happy about this situation here. The ends really don't justify the means.

[0]: https://twitter.com/itsmezhi/status/1276617354013626368?s=20

[1]: https://twitter.com/itiseyemoutheye/status/12764265029435187...

[2]: https://twitter.com/itiseyemoutheye/status/12766503684207656...

[tedunangst]

Tangentially, if you donate money and receive something tangible, then deduct the full amount from your taxes, that's tax fraud. Maybe giving donors nothing in return is just their way to help prevent inadvertent tax trouble.

[geofft]

I think this is what we used to call "growth hacking..."

[Natsu]

It's also interesting that this was timed right around the release of Parler, a Twitter alternative.

[sukilot]

Parler is 2 years old and not exclusive. It just got popular this week thanks to some Twitter influencers and due to the founder requesting peot to join.

[Natsu]

Huh, I didn't know that. This week was the first I'd heard of it.

[pfraze]

Had to look it up. It's another social media play like Gab that uses "free speech" to mean "pro alt right." Every one of their product screenshots is of a pro-Trump story. EDIT: https://parler.com/auth/access

[ALittleLight]

I think what people actually need, and probably would want, is a less free speech alternative. Like, you're banned from being rude, crass, or offensive.

In general, I like the idea of free speech, but to my intuition "free speech" seems like philosophers daring to go anywhere their minds will take them regardless of mainstream norms, political correctness, or commonly held beliefs. In practice, "free speech" is just people being jerks and saying mean things.

[ImprobableTruth]

This post seems absolutely crazy to me. If you look at history, one (if not the) main usage of censorship is as a tool for the powerful to oppress their opponents. Ideas that go against established institutions are often by their very nature offensive. Book burnings and similar atrocities such as Entartete Kunst aren't some hypothetical dreamed up by paranoid philosophers, they are real things that happened, are happening and will happen.

I think there are ways to deal with jerks without limiting free speech (e.g. user customizable filtering of content, so people can themselves decide whether to view content they think is objectionable), but if there wasn't I think you have to at the very least recognize that there is a very real cost attached to curtailing free speech.

[dionian]

And of course the moderators of such a forum would never lean to one side of neutral and define 'hate' in ways that would benefit them politically! Just like how twitter very fairly enforces the rules against liberals just like it does conservatives! /s

[weare138]

Here's a screenshot from Parler's site showing their promoted news sources. It pretty much sums up Parler:

https://i.imgur.com/2Lb8kwB.png

[klyrs]

They've got an amusing take on free speech. Namely, if they get sued over your content, you're liable for their legal fees. Also their policy seems to be overly strict vis a vis the first amendment. And of course they reserve the right to remove you and your posts for any reason, without recourse.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200625/16303844790/just-...