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Article

11 Jan 2021

Author:
Isedua Oribhabor, Eric Null, Jennifer Brody, & Peter Micek, Access Now

Open letter seeks transparency regarding Parler’s content control practices & data protection policies

Dear Mr. Matze,

Last week’s violent assault on the U.S. Capitol laid bare the very real and dangerous consequences of allowing disinformation, misinformation, and hate speech to spread unchecked on popular social media platforms like Parler. ​Reports indicate​ that the terrorists used Parler to organize the unprecedented attack on the Capitol. These developments follow ​similar reports​ of racism, extremism, and anti-semitism flourishing on your platform.

... Parler’s Community Guidelines and Terms of Service do not provide any information on ways the company combats these harmful practices. This type of transparency is critical to ensure the company is implementing policies and safeguards to ensure that users can freely express themselves unimpeded by disinformation, misinformation, and hate speech. Without a transparency report detailing how Parler enforces its own policies and responds to third-party requests for user information, or clear policies on content guidelines, Parler is not upholding its own ​stated commitments​ to a “transparent corporate policy.”

... As such, we ask that Parler engage with us to improve its practices based on the requests below. We call on you to follow through on your stated commitments by disclosing the following:

  • Policies on how Parler combats disinformation, misinformation, and hate speech;
  • Statistics on enforcement of your Community Guidelines and Terms of Service, includingthe number of accounts that have been restricted or removed due to violations of these policies;
  • Policies on notice to users before their content or accounts are restricted or removed due to violations of your Community Guidelines or Terms or Service;
  • Process, if any, through which users can appeal decisions or actions taken on their content or accounts;
  • The number of government requests for user data you receive by country, with compliance rates, and your procedures for responding to these requests;
  • Policies on notice to potentially affected users when their information has been requested or provided to government authorities, or exposed by breach, misuse, or abuse; and
  • Policies and practices affecting the processing of user data, security of data in transit and at rest, including on multi-factor authentication, encryption, and retention.

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