Do conservatives need Parler now that Elon Musk owns X?

The social media platform Parler, dormant for nearly a year, has announced a “triumphant return” under new leadership, promising to be “your ultimate destination for open dialogue, free expression, and a diverse marketplace of ideas.”

In an email to former users, the new owners, PDS Partners LLC, gave few specifics for a relaunch the company said would occur in late February. “Our primary objective is to return Parler to its roots as a space where users from all walks of life can freely express themselves. Parler is not merely a platform; it’s a community that thrives on open dialogue and the unrestricted exchange of ideas,” the email said.

It’s unclear who Parler will be courting in its latest iteration. Founded in 2018, it had been billed as an alternative to Twitter, which was then seen by many conservatives as hostile to them. Rebekah Mercer, the platform’s lead investor at its outset, said Parler was intended to combat the “ever increasing tyranny and hubris of our tech overlords,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

By 2020, many high-profile conservatives had joined Parler, among them Fox News personality Sean Hannity, U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and current GOP presidential contender Nikki Haley.

But even as its user base grew, Parler struggled. The app was temporarily pulled from some platforms after some of its posts were said to have contributed to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Its CEO and founder John Matze was fired, with investor Dan Bongino saying “the CEO’s vision was not ours.” In 2022, the rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West, announced that he was buying Parler, a week after he was banned from Twitter; that deal didn’t go through.

Today, the Parler.com home page shows only the logo on a magenta screen with the words “coming soon.” But Parler is teasing its relaunch on X, and some details are trickling out about the new ownership.

PBS has reported that Parler’s new leadership includes CEO Ryan Rhodes, chief strategy officer Jaco Booyens and chief marketing officer Elise Pierotti, as well as others “who are choosing to remain anonymous.”

Pierotti told NBC News that she, Rhodes and Booyens had acquired Parler in December from a digital media company called Starboard that had purchased the company in April.

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It’s doubtful that Parler will tilt leftward this time; Pierotti was formerly an executive at RightForge, which she described in 2022 as “a full-service web company founded to offer an escape from the mob mentality.” It was widely reported that RightForge provided the infrastructure for former President Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social.

Still, it’s unclear whether conservatives will leave X for Parler now that changes under Elon Musk’s ownership have resulted in it being called by one writer in The Atlantic “a far-right social network.”

In addition to reinstating the suspended accounts of Trump and Alex Jones, X under Musk has hosted Tucker Carlson commentaries after his firing by Fox News, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launched — and ended — his presidential bid there.

Lee, who questioned the removal of Parler from Apple and other app stores in 2021, has not said if he will return to Parler upon its relaunch, but the senator’s communications director, Billy Gribbin, said in a statement, “The more free-speech social networks, the better.”