Cruz becomes the last high-profile Republican to open an account on the platform as tensions between the party and Silicon Valley mount. Others who recently made the move include Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, and Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), according to The Hollywood Reporter.
On his website, Parler describes himself as “an unbiased social network focused on real user experiences and engagement.”
Cruz did not say he was abandoning sites like Facebook, whose user base includes more than 2 billion people and organizations worldwide.
There is no evidence of systemic anti-conservative bias on major social media platforms. But Cruz and other top Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have criticized Twitter, Facebook, and Google for what they consider an unfair deal on content posted by them and their followers.
Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers have strongly targeted Facebook in particular for refusing to take enforcement action against Trump’s recent incendiary posts, after rival Twitter began putting warning and fact-check tags on identical Trump posts in its platform.
Cruz, the leader of a subcommittee in the Senate Judiciary, has held hearings on allegations that social media companies are “censoring” conservative online discourse, and has called for renewal of tech company liability protections on the user generated content.
When asked if Cruz will remain active on the other platforms he has protested against, such as Google-owned Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, a spokesman said Parler “will be just one more platform that Senator Cruz plans to use to reach the American people. “
