How Parler’s ex-CEO John Matze is looking to fix social media — with a new app called Hedgehog
NY Post
The ex-CEO of conservative social media site Parler has launched a new app called Hedgehog that looks to promote “rational discussions,” even as it looks to eliminate cyberbullying and online “mobs” that have plagued other sites — including and especially Parler.
John Matze said he has developed the new app, which has been likened to a hybrid of Flipboard, Reddit and X, after learning hard lessons from his time running Parler — famously shut down in January 2021 over accusations that it helped enable the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters.
The tech entrepreneur co-founded Parler in 2018 partly in response to questionable clampdowns on “misinformation” by social media apps including Facebook and Twitter that frequently targeted conservatives. Parler’s lax regulation, however, left it vulnerable to promoting conspiracy theories during the 2020 presidential election.
Hedgehog, on the other hand, is looking to walk a line to become a destination for news junkies whether they lean to the left or the right — and who are interested in sorting through the facts.
“Hedgehog is going to be successful the more diverse the people are on the platform,” Matze told The Post. “Getting a broad spectrum of people on the platform is our target.”
“The fringe left and the fringe right, that’s not our target demographic,” he added. “They probably don’t want to have those good-faith discussions, the debate and the discourse that we are trying to create on the platform.”
