He is the new darling of the disappointed with the American presidential election.
The social network Parler has attracted American conservatives and far-right activists by the millions for a week.
This Twitter clone, created in 2018 by John Matze, officially more than doubled the number of its members, from 4.5 million subscribers the week before the American poll to 10 million users on Saturday, November 14.
Talking has become the most downloaded application on smartphones in the United States for ten days, says CNN.
Texas Senator and Donald Trump supporter Ted Cruz, the very popular Fox News presenter Maria Bartiromo or her colleague Sean Hannity, the influential conservative radio host Mark Levin have all called, in recent days, their followers to come and swell the Talking ranks.
"Have Twitter and Facebook gone too far? The success of Parler can be explained, in part, by the fact that people understood that they were being censored elsewhere," said Maria Bartiromo, alluding to the recurring criticisms that the conservatives are sending to major social networks, accused of having sided with the Democrats during the last presidential campaign.
A conspirator, an ex-leader of the Ku Klux Klan and conservative billionaires
The millions of Americans who responded to these calls will find themselves in a much less civilized environment, where far-right figures banned from Twitter or Facebook, such as conspiratorialist Alex Jones, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke or the anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer, have already taken their ease.
They will be able, like on Twitter, to subscribe to the threads of other members, share messages and participate in debates.
But there are a lot less taboos here than on other platforms.
If pornography is outlawed, for the rest "we emphasize freedom of expression and the exchange of ideas," said John Matze, CEO of Parler.
Contesting the results of the presidential election and asserting that Donald Trump won is therefore entirely authorized, as is promoting racial hatred and conspiracy theories of all kinds.
The dazzling success of this haven of peace for "QAnonists" (followers of a crazy conspiracy theory making Donald Trump the only bulwark against a conspiracy of satanist democrats) and supremacists would not have been possible without the wealthy Mercer family.
Rebekah Mercer, the daughter of financier and billionaire Robert Mercer, admitted, Saturday, November 14, having funded the creation and development of Parler to enable it to become a credible alternative to Twitter or Facebook.
This social network is the result of an "effort to put an end to the tyranny and excessiveness of our techno-lords and to defend freedom of expression," she told the Wall Street Journal.
Central role in Donald Trump's campaign in 2016
It is also a new illustration of the influence exerted behind the scenes by this family on the Republican camp since the arrival of Donald Trump in the American political landscape.
In 2016, Robert Mercer, a genius financier, keen on computers and extremist political ideas, had bet more than $ 23 million on the candidacy of Donald Trump and various Republican candidates who ran for the Senate.
But the billionaire and his daughter didn't just sign checks.
Rebekah Mercer also played a central role in Donald Trump's campaign.
It was she who convinced the Republican candidate to make Steve Bannon his chief strategist, says the New Yorker.
No wonder: Robert Mercer was, in the early 2010s, one of the main financiers of Breitbart, the far-right media outlet led by Steve Bannon.
It was again Rebekah Mercer who commissioned the very controversial company Cambridge Analytica to take care of the digital aspect of Donald Trump's campaign.
Again, nothing surprising: Robert Mercer was the main investor in this company which found itself, in 2018, at the heart of one of the most resounding scandals in the history of Facebook for having exploited the personal data of 50 million users of the social network without their consent.
"The Mercers laid the foundations for the Trump revolution," Steve Bannon told The New Yorker in 2019.
But they continued their influencing work after the 2016 election. Rebekah Mercer, who shares with her father a visceral hatred of most of the values of the progressive camp, such as the right to abortion or a limitation on the right to wear a weapon, also sits on the board of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), a conservative think tank and propaganda machine co-founded by Steve Bannon.
It is this "institute" which is at the origin of several "reports" on the money of Bill and Hillary Clinton which were used to nourish the theories of the conspiracy making of the former American president and his wife central figures. of a conspiracy to lead the United States behind the scenes.
The Government Accountability Institute was also among the first to attempt to implicate Democratic candidate Joe Biden in alleged corruption cases in Ukraine.
In 2018, a book published by this organization devoted an entire chapter to the role of Hunter Biden on the board of directors of Ukrainian energy giant Burisma, says the New Yorker.
In light of all this, the role of Rebekah Mercer in the creation of Parler, the small social network that is rising in conservative circles, may seem anecdotal.
But for anti-racism organizations, the recent success of this alternative to Twitter can be very dangerous.
Indeed, a significant part of the millions of new members are staunch Republicans who have not yet tipped into extremism but who risk being influenced by the avalanche of extremist comments, warns the Anti Defamation League, in a report on Parler appeared on Thursday 12 November.
And in the explosive political context in the United States, Talking could be the spark that ignites the powder.
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