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Congressional oversight committee examines whether Parler has financial ties to Russian entities, citing reports that the right-wing social network “allowed Russian disinformation to flourish” ahead of the election and welcomed calls for violence before that a crowd incited by Trump storm the Capitol in January. 6. The chair of the committee sent a letter to Parler’s COO Jeffrey Wernick today, demanding documents on Parler’s ownership, potential ties to Russian individuals or entities, and reported negotiations between Parler and the Trump organization.
“Talking would have allowed Russian disinformation to flourish on its platform ahead of the November 2020 election, facilitating Russia’s campaign to wreak havoc on the American electorate,” said U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney (D -NY), chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. , wrote in the letter to Wernick. Although similar misinformation has been removed by other social media platforms, it was allowed to remain on Speak. When US hosting services severed ties with Speak for repeatedly failing to moderate the content advocating violence, Parler reappeared on a Russian hosting service, DDos-Guard, which has ties to the Russian government and counts the Russian Defense Ministry as one of its clients. “
Maloney also cited a BuzzFeed report that said, “The Trump Organization negotiated on behalf of then-President Donald Trump to make Speaking its primary social network, but it had one condition: participation in exchange for membership. ” Speak offered Trump’s company a 40% stake, but negotiations “were ultimately derailed by the events of January 6,” the report said.
“These negotiations were said to have taken place while President Trump was still in office, which experts say raises legal concerns about anti-corruption laws,” Maloney wrote.
Parler users called for “civil war”
In the weeks leading up to January 6, “Talk users actively took advantage of the platform to call for violence and even ‘civil war’,” Maloney wrote. She also described an increase in calls for violence against Speaking just after Trump spoke at a rally on Jan.6, before his supporters stormed the Capitol.
“A recent USA Today analysis shows a strong link between President Trump’s speech at the January 6 rally and a significant increase in calls for violence against Speaking,” Maloney wrote to Wernick. “Immediately after President Trump urged his supporters to ‘use force’ during his speech, the term ‘civil war’ became one of the five most frequently used terms on Speaking. One user wrote: ‘Be the men, fight and f– – them. Civil war is upon us. “”
Maloney noted that “many Talking users have been arrested and charged for their roles” in the Jan. 6 crowd, “with the Justice Department repeatedly citing threats individuals made through Parler in the days before and after the attack. “
Parler co-founder and CEO John Matze was recently fired.
Finding information about the property of Parler
Urging Parler to comply with his request for the documents, Maloney stressed the “broad power of the Oversight Committee to investigate” any matter “at” any time “under Rule X of the House. Maloney also referred to legislation she tabled to help law enforcement agencies obtain “property information from opaque corporations as part of their investigations into the Jan.6 attack on Capitol Hill. . be allowed to hide behind the veil of anonymity provided by front companies. “
Maloney asked Wernick to respond by February 22 with the following documents:
- A capitalization table showing the natural and legal persons having direct or indirect ownership interests in Parler, and a register of shareholders kept by you or by a third party on your behalf;
- A list of all the people and entities who have or had control over Speaking;
- A list of Parler’s creditors who hold or held debt of at least $ 10,000, including type of debt financing, amount owed, due date and applicable interest rate;
- All agreements, including, but not limited to, advisory, service, or business agreements that Parler has with any Russian person or entity
- All documents and communications that refer to or relate to any financing, gifts or investment offered or made in Speaking directly or indirectly by a Russian person or entity; and
- All documents and communications relating to [or] on a proposal to provide President Donald Trump with a stake in Speak.
We reached out to Speak about Maloney’s letter today and will update this article if we get a response. Speak, which was discontinued by Amazon Web Services on January 10, remains live only as a static webpage with a few articles and a note on “technical difficulties.”
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