Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The big three of the social media phenomena that has swept the world since the early naughties have finally met their match. Despite boasting billions of users in almost every country, there’s a new kid on the block, and it’s looking like it’s here to stay. 

Meet Parler, a social media platform founded in 2018 by John Matze who promotes the newcomer as “the platform that social media should have been when it originated”. Matze, who identifies himself as a libertarian, created Parler to resemble a community forum for all users, free of censorship and politically biased fact-checking. 

Over the weekend, the platform gained an astronomical 500,000 additional users, placing it at the top...