I think you're encountering Poe's Law here - at some point it becomes difficult to tell the difference between a troll and someone genuinely expressing an extremist point of view.
Are there trolls on Gab and Parler? For sure. Are there purestrain rabid culture warriors on Gab and Parler? Yup. Are Gab and Parler honeypots? I don't think so, but that also depends how you define "honeypot."
Both exist because other social networks cracked down on distasteful content. Gab erupted during the era of cracking down on ethnonationalists and is full of wannabe nazis and 4chan-grown edgelords. Parler erupted during the era of cracking down on dangerous misinformation (QAnon, COVID denialism, the things that we now know lead to election denialism, etc etc) and if full of people that choose to believe that nonsense rather than reality. Parler was also signal boosted by political voices that intentionally framed crackdowns on distasteful content as an aspect of the ongoing culture war.
Both naturally courted their respective audiences.
The guy running Gab is a True Believer. Check out Gab's Twitter (heh) for some pretty questionable recent posts that blame the hack on "mentally ill trans hackers," only with a slur instead of trans, because of course there's a slur.
The Mercer family bankrolls Parler. They have a long history of throwing money at causes that follow their political viewpoints. We don't have a reason to doubt that their board and and management are True Believers in their own cause as well.
So, is it really a honeypot if it's honest by design?
He's definitely not but he knows how to play to his audience. Instead of owning it and saying 'we messed up' it's easier to blame the 'mentally ill trans hackers'!
But the 'hack' was almost certainly intentional, it's the exact same play Parler did a few weeks ago. They're both honeypots, this is the easiest way to get the data out there.
Are there trolls on Gab and Parler? For sure. Are there purestrain rabid culture warriors on Gab and Parler? Yup. Are Gab and Parler honeypots? I don't think so, but that also depends how you define "honeypot."
Both exist because other social networks cracked down on distasteful content. Gab erupted during the era of cracking down on ethnonationalists and is full of wannabe nazis and 4chan-grown edgelords. Parler erupted during the era of cracking down on dangerous misinformation (QAnon, COVID denialism, the things that we now know lead to election denialism, etc etc) and if full of people that choose to believe that nonsense rather than reality. Parler was also signal boosted by political voices that intentionally framed crackdowns on distasteful content as an aspect of the ongoing culture war.
Both naturally courted their respective audiences.
The guy running Gab is a True Believer. Check out Gab's Twitter (heh) for some pretty questionable recent posts that blame the hack on "mentally ill trans hackers," only with a slur instead of trans, because of course there's a slur.
The Mercer family bankrolls Parler. They have a long history of throwing money at causes that follow their political viewpoints. We don't have a reason to doubt that their board and and management are True Believers in their own cause as well.
So, is it really a honeypot if it's honest by design?