Digital Social Hour - Data Privacy Bombshell: How Parler is Changing the Game | Jon Willis DSH #1052

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

Data Privacy Bombshell: Parler's game-changing approach to protecting your information! 🚀 Discover how this innovative platform is revolutionizing social media by putting users first.   In this eye-opening interview, Jon Willis from Parler reveals their groundbreaking strategy to combat big tech's data selling practices. Learn how Parler's blockchain integration and reward system are transforming the social media landscape, offering users unprecedented control and benefits.   🔥 Key highlights: • Parler's autonomous cloud solution • Play TV: A new competitor to YouTube and TikTok • Blockchain rewards for user engagement • The shocking truth about data selling by big tech companies   Don't miss out on this insider look at the future of social media! Watch now and join the conversation about data privacy, user empowerment, and the changing face of digital platforms.   Ready to take control of your online experience? Tune in now and discover how Parler is shaking up the industry. Hit that subscribe button for more game-changing insights on tech, privacy, and social media! 📱💡   #gdpr #privacyimpactassessment #socialmediamarketing #informationsecurity #datagovernance   CHAPTERS: 00:00 - America Fest 00:40 - Parler Platform 03:20 - Play TV Overview 05:27 - Data as the New Oil 06:55 - Facebook Advertising Strategies 08:18 - Trump vs. Big Tech 09:19 - Parler's No Shadow Banning Policy 10:31 - Democrats and SIOP Silence 11:39 - Understanding Monkeypox 12:46 - Elon Musk's Impact on Elections 15:02 - Future of Parler 17:18 - Jon's Closing Thoughts   APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail]   GUEST: Jon Willis https://www.instagram.com/thejonwillis/ https://www.parler.com/   LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/

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Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. by selling our data as we speak. I heard somewhere it's like 900 bucks per person per day. Per day? Per day.

That's actually insane. All right guys, John Willis here from Parler. We are at America Fest. You ready? It's gonna be a good week. Rock and roll my friends. Let's do it. Have you been to America Fest before?

I haven't, this is my first time. Same here. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know what to expect, but it's been a good start. Yeah, I'm cool people. A lot of cool people. Parler's got two booths. We do. We're trying to corner the market here. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what to expect, but it's been a good start. Yeah. I'm cool people. A lot of cool people. Parler's got two booths. We do. We're trying to corner the market here. Yes, sir. You literally have both corners.

Both corners. Yeah, literally. What's new about Parler? Oh, man. You know, we, we are trying to do some pretty crazy stuff. You know, we bought Parler a year ago. So December actually was a year ago this week. Why not? So we bought Parler a year ago, so December, actually it was a year ago this week. Why not? So we bought Parler, bought the brand, the database, the IP, everything, and we already owned a tech company already based in Texas, and we decided to go ahead and take all the tech that we already had and slap the Parler label on top of it. And this past year has just been insane.

I mean, we've been pretty much working in stealth mode. And what we have been building, you know, under the radar, under the media radar and such, is really a replacement to big tech. You know, you have a lot of these alternative platforms out there like Rumble, which is an alternative to YouTube. And then you have True Social, which is an alternative to X. We decided let's go a little bit bigger and let's just create a whole

alternative to Big Tech, you know, a replacement for Big Tech. So, um, Parler was a, was a no-brainer to relaunch cause it was a well-known brand, it was number one in the app store before it was shut down by Big Tech. Right after the 2020 election, um, you know, Apple, Google and AWS colluded with each other, they all shut it down the same day, right around the 2020 election. You know, Apple, Google, and AWS colluded with each other. They all shut it down the same day, right around the same time that Trump was banned and conservatives all around were banned. So what we decided to do is with our other company,

we decided to create an autonomous solution that wouldn't be reliant on big tech. And the key component of that is having your own cloud. When you have your own cloud, you pretty much can do whatever the heck you want. Because from a cost perspective, cloud services, you may know this, is usually one of the most cost, you know, most prohibitive things of really trying to build your company. Because the cost is so expensive.

And AWS knows it, Microsoft knows it, Acmei knows it. And so they know these things, and so they charge a fortune for these services. And so what we did is we wanted to create this autonomous solution that wasn't reliant on those companies and wanted to put Parler on top of that. And so when you look at the Parler and the Parler ecosystem today, it's completely autonomous. We're not relying on Big Tech for anything, which is awesome. So what we've done is when we relaunched Parler, we knew that it would be entering into a crowded field with threads and X and true social and such. You have these microblogging platforms that are out there and all those platforms really

don't have the key demographic that we were chasing, which is Gen Z and Gen Alpha. And so in order to do that, we wanted to create a new platform, which we just launched, which is really a competitor to YouTube and TikTok, which is Play TV, which is available in the app stores now. And that's my shameless plug for this. I was going to ask about it anyway. Shameless plug. But yeah, so Play TV, when you when you go download Play TV, I mean, it's an experience that you're already familiar with. So there's no learning curve to upload a video, upload a burst, which is our version of a reel. So short form content. And we wanted to be able to create that really cool feel to the social media platforms that you guys are already familiar with. But

then we wanted to take it a step further and we wanted to really protect our users' data. Because we know before with social media, like platforms like Facebook and Instagram, the users are the product. They're never the beneficiaries. So, you know, when you click I accept when you join Facebook, for instance, you're accepting the fact that they are taking your data, they're selling it for billions of dollars, you know, when you look at the total number, and you get absolutely nothing in return. You get nothing. You get the experience of being on their platform, but you don't get any of the monetary benefit. So what we did is we decided to integrate Parler into the blockchain and to create a whole reward system around the social media experience. So create that utility using a social media platform.

So we embedded our wallet, the Parler Pay wallet, into over 17 million Parler apps that are sitting on people's phones right now. And every single day, those apps are receiving tokens for being a light no- Looking for the ultimate online casino experience? Step into the BetMGM Casino app, where every deal, spin, and goal brings Las Vegas excitement into the palm of your hand. Take your seat at Premium Blackjack Pro Pro where strategy meets top-tier gameplay. Hit the ice with Gretzky Goal Lucky Tap, inspired by the great one himself, or play the dazzling MGM Grand Emerald Knights, a slot experience that captures the magic of MGM. With so many games,

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19 plus to wager Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Node on the blockchain. And so what's really neat about this is as you use Parler or PlayTV or our network of platforms that we're launching, you earn these rewards every day that can be redeemed in our new Parler shop or you know eventually hypothetically one day we'll be listed on several exchanges and

you can figure out what we can do with the rewards that as you convert them You know, eventually, hypothetically, one day we'll be listed on several exchanges and you can figure out what we can do with the rewards that as you convert them into tokens and eventually crypto and cash. So you know, that's down the road. But you know, for us, what we wanted to do is we wanted to make the users not the product, but the beneficiaries of everything that we're doing. So the data is safe because we're never selling it. It's not part of our business model.

It's not part of our revenue model. And then it's encrypted with the blockchain. Everything's safe through that. So I love it. Yeah. It's Google and Apple are probably selling our data as we speak. I think I heard somewhere it's like 900 bucks per person per day. Really? Per day? Yeah. Holy crap. Yeah. That's actually insane. That's how Tim Cook dresses so nice. He's able to dresses so nice. He's able to afford those nice things. I didn't even know that was that much money, to be honest. I thought it was way less.

But even so, the fact that they're selling it and profiting while the user gets nothing is... Well, do the math. I mean, Facebook has, what, 2.1 billion users? Yeah. Wow, so I can't even do the math in my head on that. Mucho dinero. That's a lot of money.

Their margins are high. And then you got the Facebook ads. That's all profitable. Which are horrible by the way. I mean, you can't make, if you're a small business, I don't know how you survive with Facebook ads. It used to be a great place to market. And now it's ridiculous.

Same with Google. It's really hard to make ROI unless you have high margin. Like a lot of e-commerce businesses that used to run ads, they can't anymore. Yeah. You know, it sucks. Those are like mom and pop shops too. Those are like the everyday people. Yeah. And, and you know, they're saying, hey, we switched to AI. Our new AI targeting is amazing. It's not. I mean, it's, it's ridiculous. Back in the day, I used to own a marketing agency and we could do hyper, hyper focused or hyper targeted ads.

If I wanted to target someone that ate Cheerios for breakfast every day that was in their mid 20s that was Asian, I could do that. Not anymore. Because now even with the targeting, their targeting has gone woke. You can't even target how much you make anymore, right? Like the income level? Oh, you can't do that. You can't target political parties.

You can't do any of that stuff. Wow, I didn't know that. You have to get really creative with your ads, with your keywords and all that stuff in order to get them approved. And a lot of them, they don't approve. No. A lot of ads.

No. Like if Parler tried running ads, they'd probably deny it. Oh yeah, we're a competitor. Yeah. Yeah, I think they spoke out against Parler, right? I saw some posts, like Facebook speaking out. Probably. Yeah, they banned, yeah, I think they spoke out against parlor right? I saw some posts like Facebook speaking out probably Yeah, they banned you guys or something. Yeah, I mean we we have an account there, but we were so shadow banned with meta Yeah, I mean, you know, it's it's absolutely ridiculous the the games that they played and I think it's laughable when you see Zuckerberg go to

Mar-a-Lago to bend the knee to to the Donald, you know donated a million donated him Yeah, you know, that's a million. Donated, yeah. That's probably what he carries in his back pocket. A child play for him. But yeah, I mean, you know, he said, oh yeah, we're gonna be all about free speech. Yeah, let's see. Yeah, that was more like an apology donation to me.

That wasn't an actual, genuine donation. Yeah, maybe add two more zeros and maybe we'll talk. Oh, you see Trump's going after some of these platforms and media outlets. I wonder if he'll target a social media platform. I mean, we'll see. I mean, we see that yesterday the Supreme Court announced that they're going to take up the TikTok case.

TikTok was set to be banned in three weeks. Yeah, the 19th. And so now we'll see. I mean, I'd be shocked because the United States has never banned a company like that before. I mean, even if there may be some suspicion that they are Chinese, I mean, that's pretty unprecedented for what we've done in our country.

So we'll see what the Supreme Court says. I mean, they said they're going to ban it for years. Yes. You're on TikTok. I mean, I'm banned, actually. Are you really? I got banned last week. Yeah. Usually I get it back by now, but this one must've really ascended them.

Was it, was it worth getting banned? I mean, was it good content or was it just something stupid? It's some stupid like anytime you're a little too conservative, you know, you get banned unless you're Charlie Kirk. He's got a plug at TikTok. Yeah, there you go. But yeah, it sucks that, uh, platforms are doing that. Has Parler ever shadow banned anyone? No. No, in fact, what we do with our moderation,

we use AI moderation because we have a zero tolerance on pornography. So we just don't allow it. And the reason being is we are very actively fighting against child sex trafficking. And pornography, in our opinion, is the gateway drug to to trafficking and so You know for us our AI is able to catch it before it hits You know goes on air says or gets on the platform

So I know for me if I leave my phone unlocked and my five-year-old daughter picks up my phone and parlors open There's nothing I need to worry about because that type of content is captured. Now, if you post something like that, you know, something that is a gross violation of our rules, of course, you're going to get a ban. But, you know, we do not censor opinions. We do not censor information. We want people to actually be adults and figure things out for themselves, you know? So, like, if you want to post something about what you think the flying orbs over New Jersey are, if you want to say that it's Ezekiel's wheel from the Bible,

or if you want to say it's an alien, great. That's your opinion. We don't care. Post it. Where do you lie on that? Psy-hop. Same. I think it's government. Well, can I, you know, I probably shouldn't talk about this, but I have never seen the Democrats go so quietly with a big loss like this. That's actually a good point. I mean, you think about it, like, normally when they lose, there's riots or, you know, Russia collusion. You know, that was the big talking point in 2016.

But they've been awfully like, ah, shucks, we lost. I think part of it's because it was such a landslide though. Yes. But also keep in mind that Trump is literally going to dismantle their entire bureaucracy that they as a party have built over the last 70 years. I mean, actually even longer than that started with Woodrow Wilson, you know, who started the income tax. Yeah.

And then it went to FDR that started the, you know, who started the income tax. Yeah. And then it went to FDR that started the, the, um, you know, the new deal with social security and all that stuff. And then LVJ with the welfare state. So, you know, you have this huge bureaucracy that, uh, this fourth branch of government that was created and Trump's going to come in with Elon and Vivek and completely taken apart and they're not putting up a fight. Interesting. I mean, that, like, I I I was talking to someone the other day who's a former congressman and I'm just like I don't know I feel something in my gut

that something's gonna happen. I hope I'm wrong. I hope it's smooth sailing until January 20th but I don't know. You never know. You never know. You see what they did with COVID. You saw. Nothing's gonna stop these guys. They're talking about monkeypox. You know? I think Cali just talked about it. And they're planning for shutdowns or lockdowns again. Yeah, I don't think that's going to fly, though.

Because now that everyone has seen through the BS that Fauci was putting out there, I really don't think they're going to see. Everyone's going to start seeing through it now, because it was proven that it was all. Right. And that's the power of social media. With X, Now you can see stuff live. You saw it 100%. And I think in all honesty, I think Elon's what saved this country 100% because he, he did not allow

the government or the DNC to collude and dictate the messaging that went out. They couldn't control him. Yeah. And he has the pocket, him. And he has the pocket book in order to basically push back and say, hey, you guys can threaten me all you want. It's not going to work. So we got to give him credit for that. Parler started as the original free speech app, and then Elon took and ran with it with X. So we look at us as we're not competitors in the sense we look at it, we're contemporaries. We're on the same level when it comes to what we stand for and we're shoulder to shoulder

with everything that he's trying to do. But I truly think that the election was swayed because they could not influence society or the voters like they did in 2020. Yeah, did you see that Biden administration was targeting Elon? This just came out a few days ago. Oh, shocker.

Yeah, he spent allegedly $300 million. That Elon spent $300 million? No, Biden's administration. Was that part of Kamala's $2 billion tab that she ran up? Could have been, could have been. Crazy, right? How do you spend that much money in, what, three months?

It's nuts, dude. Yeah, a billion dollars. I mean, I've seen what my wife, three months? It's nuts, dude. Yeah. Billion dollars. I mean, I've seen what my wife can do at Target at Nordstrom, but you know. She spent over what she raised, right? She went 14 million in the hole or something. I think it was actually, I think it was like 20, 25 million. And Trump offered to pay it. What? Yeah. He came back.

He's like, hey, I'll take care of that. What a big man, you know? Yeah. He settled at ABC for 15. He probably could have got way more if he went the full trial. Oh, yeah. And I think it may be the end of George Stephanopoulos. They're talking about him quitting ABC right now. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised. MSNBC is struggling.

A lot of these news outlets are really hurting right now. What, what do you think is going to happen with MSNBC? They're saying, uh, Elon or Alex Jones will be the new face, right? On, on X. Well, who do you think is going to, you know, Elon could buy it. He could buy it and put Alex Jones up there or Tucker. Or Trump Media Group. Yeah. That would be funny.

That'd be cool. I mean, I think that's why Rachel Maddow was crying on air, you know, she'd all go to. I can't believe some of their salaries. I don't know if it was her, but she might've been making like five million a year, something crazy. I mean, if you're a socialist,

aren't you supposed to be working for free? Yeah. Oh. When you see that with the Congress now they're trying to get a 70k salary increase. Of course. And that's like 33 percent. You got to keep up with the inflation that they created. Yeah well I get that part but 33 percent's a little more than inflation I think right? Well yeah but it's it's a congressional math. Sorry there's always some extra zeros and ones and twos and that. So yeah. Well, dude, what's next? I guess what's the big plan for the next next few months? You know, for us with Parler, as we really do our huge push in 2025, you know, we're really focusing on being global. And with Optio, which is our

blockchain that we've integrated with, that's really going to allow us to do that. As I said, we are going to be rewarding our users for using the platform. So as they like, share, comment, and post, even the type of content that they're posting will determine the amount of rewards that they are distributed every single day. So if you're posting good, wholesome, positive content, you're going to be rewarded more than if you're being a troll or a jerk or whatever. And the reason why we're looking at that is how do you change culture?

You know, you could either be manipulative and do it by controlling education, controlling media and all that stuff, or you can be incentivizing good behavior. So we want to incentivize good behavior in order to help change culture for the good. And so that's why we created this rewards system and this rewards ecosystem where, like, for instance, you see, you have a single mom who's barely struggling to get by to raise her two kids and at night, what is she doing? She's doom scrolling at, you know at very late hours of the night.

She's doom scrolling, looking at content. But if she's doing that on Parler and she's interacting and engaging on the app, the next morning she's gonna wake up and guess what's gonna be in her Parler paywallet? Rewards. It's cool. And our goal is to one day have those rewards

with our Optio Accept Adhere program, where similar to what Amex and DiscoverCard did back in the day, where we will have a network of vendors where that mom can go into a grocery store like Walmart or wherever, Kroners, and she can pay with her Optio rewards. I love that. And she can actually go get groceries and food and whatever,

get buy clothes for her kids with Optio instead of with Fiat. And so that's what we're trying to do is to reward behavior, reward people that are already doing things that they're used to doing, but they never gotten the benefit from it. And now we're changing that. Now we're rewriting the book on how this should be.

That's awesome. We'll link the app below, Parlor Pay below. Anything else you want to close off with, John? No, just check out PlayTV, We're rewriting the book on on how this should be. That's awesome. We'll link the app below parlor pay below anything else You want to close off with John? No, I just check out play TV play TV dot parlor comm and it's available both on iOS and Android and once you do sign up for parlor make sure you set up your parlor pay wallet and Enjoy enjoy what we have planned. Yeah, we'll link it all below. Thanks for coming on man. Thanks brother. Have a good one Enjoy what we have planned. Yeah, we'll link it all below.

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