London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Sep 09, 2025

Parler, A Social Media Platform That Stands For Free Speech, Temporarily Blocked Its Founder

Parler, A Social Media Platform That Stands For Free Speech, Temporarily Blocked Its Founder

“I know it’s a ban because I know how the architecture works. I can’t log in anymore.”

Parler, the social media site popular among conservatives, appeared to have banned its cofounder and former CEO on Friday before restoring his access later in the day.

John Matze, whom Parler's management fired earlier this month, told BuzzFeed News that he believed he had been banned after making several posts and comments on the platform earlier this week.

Screenshots that Matze shared on a Telegram channel showed that his account had been made “private” on Friday after he'd made a post asking his 722,000 Parler followers what they thought the “fair market value” of the company was. Earlier this week, he had made a post on Parler asking followers to join him on Telegram, a popular messaging app.

A screenshot posted by former Parler CEO John Matze shows that the social network had made his account "private" for an unspecified reason.


When BuzzFeed News attempted to communicate with the handle, it received a message that the account had been “blocked.”

“I know it’s a ban because I know how the architecture works,” Matze told BuzzFeed News over text. “I can’t log in anymore.”

After BuzzFeed News contacted a Parler spokesperson about the situation, the social network unblocked the account, according to Matze, who provided a screenshot. The spokesperson did not provide any comment.

Parler grew in popularity at the end of 2020, drawing conservatives by positioning itself as a “free speech” alternative to Twitter and Facebook. With little content moderation, the site, which had a reported 15 million users by the time it went offline last month, became a hub for conspiracy theories, hate speech, and incitement of violence. Parler relaunched on Monday, having been offline for weeks after Amazon cut off its cloud hosting services because had spread content that glorified the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

In other comments made on Friday before he was banned, Matze commended former colleagues for “doing a great job” in getting Parler back online, telling them to “keep killing.”

Matze declined to comment on the meaning of his post about the company’s valuation. He was fired earlier this month by Rebekah Mercer, cofounder and majority shareholder of Parler. His firing followed high-profile bans of the company from Apple and Google, which removed it from their app stores, as well as Amazon.

The three companies said they had cut off relationships with Parler for its failure to moderate hate speech and the glorification of violence following the events of Jan. 6, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. Matze told the Wall Street Journal that he had been fired for trying to implement more content moderation to get Parler back into the app stores.

In a statement earlier this month, Amy Peikoff, chief policy officer at Parler, called Matze’s characterization of his termination “misleading” but did not say what was inaccurate.

BuzzFeed News previously reported that Parler executives and advisers were in negotiations to offer a 40% stake to the Trump Organization to secure Donald Trump's exclusive participation. Negotiations for the deal continued through late last year but stopped after the insurrection led to Parler’s temporary collapse and Trump’s suspension and bans from Facebook and Twitter.

“We have spoken to several people about potential stakes in the company for producing certain things,” Parler investor and adviser Jeffrey Wernick told BuzzFeed News earlier this month.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Murdoch Family Finalises $3.3 Billion Succession Pact, Ensuring Eldest Son’s Leadership
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Court Staff Cover Up Banksy Image of Judge Beating a Protester
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
Elon Musk Poised to Become First Trillionaire Under Ambitious Tesla Pay Plan
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
Burning the Minister’s House Helped Protesters to Win Justice: Prabowo Fires Finance Minister in Wake of Indonesia Protests
Brazil Braces for Fallout from Bolsonaro Trial by corrupted judge
The Country That Got Too Rich? Public Spending Dominates Norway Election
Nearly 40 Years Later: Nike Changes the Legendary Slogan Just Do It
Generations Born After 1939 Unlikely to Reach Age One Hundred, New Study Finds
End to a four-year manhunt in New Zealand: the father who abducted his children to the forests was killed, the three siblings were found
Germany Suspends Debt Rules, Funnels €500 Billion Toward Military and Proxy War Strategy
EU Prepares for War
BMW Eyes Growth in China with New All‑Electric Neue Klasse Lineup
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
US Justice Department Launches Criminal Mortgage-Fraud Probe into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
Escalating Drug Trafficking and Violence in Latin America: A Growing Crisis
US and Taiwanese Defence Officials Held Secret Talks in Alaska
Report: Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission in North Korea Ordered by Trump in 2019 Ended in Failure
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Florida Murder Case: The Adelson Family, the Killing of Dan Markel, and the Trial of Donna Adelson
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Big Tech Executives Laud Trump at White House Dinner, Unveil Massive U.S. Investments
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
‘Looks Like a Wig’: Online Users Express Concern Over Kate Middleton
Brand-New $1 Million Yacht Sinks Just Fifteen Minutes After Maiden Launch in Turkey
Here’s What the FBI Seized in John Bolton Raid — and the Legal Risks He Faces
Florida’s Vaccine Revolution: DeSantis Declares War on Mandates
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
"The Situation Has Never Been This Bad": The Fall of PepsiCo
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
The Fashion Designer Who Became an Italian Symbol: Giorgio Armani Has Died at 91
Putin Celebrates ‘Unprecedentedly High’ Ties with China as Gazprom Seals Power of Siberia-2 Deal
China Unveils New Weapons in Grand Military Parade as Xi Hosts Putin and Kim
Queen Camilla’s Teenage Courage: Fended Off Attempted Assault on London Train, New Biography Reveals
Scottish Brothers Set Record in Historic Pacific Row
Rapper Cardi B Cleared of Liability in Los Angeles Civil Assault Trial
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Court of Appeal Allows Asylum Seekers to Remain at Essex Hotel Amid Local Tax Boycott Threats
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
×