[onion2k]

Parler's origin story can be summarised as:

- Former startup founder and Amazon dev meets beautiful Russian woman in Vegas

- Whirlwind romance

- Married in Russia

- Travels Russia for 6 months allegedly having meetings with tech people and lawyers

- Comes back to Vegas and starts social network with 'secret' (eg not publicly disclosed) investors.

None of that is necessarily a smoking gun. It could be entirely legitimate and above board, and just the story of how someone started a business that's right on the edge of what's socially acceptable for many people. But if you wanted to build a honeypot social network in the USA that is pretty much exactly how you'd do it.

[Gibbon1]

> with 'secret' (eg not publicly disclosed) investors

One of them is Rebekah Mercer

[onion2k]

We know that now, but it took a lot of effort by journalists to figure it out. Parler operated for a while without anyone knowing how they were paying the bills.