#TWEXIT

About 200,000 Saudi Arabian Users Suddenly Flood Parler, a Pro-Trump Twitter Alternative

The barrage of new accounts reportedly more than doubled Parler’s total number of users.

Tens of thousands of Saudi Arabians have suddenly flocked to the pro-Trump social network Parler to apparently protest what they see as censorship on Twitter, Reuters reports. Parler CEO John Matze said the new accounts have “more than doubled” the total number of users on the site since Sunday, and have subsequently broken some of Parler’s functions. About 200,000 new users joined the network, and researchers have found that many of them were from Saudi Arabia. The Saudi users reportedly promoted their use of Parler in tweets while claiming Twitter was suppressing free expression. On Parler, Saudi accounts have reportedly been using the hashtag #Twexit. Twitter reportedly declined to comment about any action it has taken against its Saudi users, but Parler seems to have embraced the new accounts. “The nationalist movement of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made it known that big tech is censoring them at rates we have never experienced in the United States,” Parler wrote in a post on its own account. “Let us welcome them as we all fight for our rights together.”