The Parler social media app on the Apple App Store, before it was banned.
Stephen Shankland / CNET
Parler offered Trump Organization a 40% stake in the company if then-President Donald Trump posted comments exclusively to the conservative social network, Buzzfeed News reported on Friday. Negotiations began last summer and resumed in November after Trump lost the presidential election.
In June 2020, members of the Trump campaign met with Parler’s top management, Buzzfeed reported, but the White House lawyer halted negotiations. When negotiations resumed, Parler proposed that Trump post to Parler four hours before posting to other social networks. Trump was not part of the negotiations, Buzzfeed reported, and no deal has been struck.
Parler has been effectively closed since January, when Apple and Google banned the app because of its content moderation. It was later taken offline when Amazon stopped hosting the service. Parler Chief Executive John Matze was fired this week.
Parler attracted the activities of right-wing commentators, including some who were banned from Twitter and Facebook. Before being taken offline, Parler called himself “impartial social media”.
Trump’s presidency put social media in the spotlight. He had millions of followers on Facebook and Twitter and used the services to post comments, official announcements and baseless claims that the election had been stolen from him. After the January 6 uprising, when a crowd of Trump supporters invaded the Capitol, Facebook blocked Trump indefinitely and Twitter banned his account permanently.
Parler, the Trump campaign and the Trump Organization, which oversees Trump’s commercial interests, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.