Parler, the ‘free speech’ Twitter clone, surged in Australia after US election

In the days after the November 3 US election, a relatively unknown app rocketed through the rankings on Australia’s Apple and Google app stores.

On the Saturday after the Tuesday vote — the day Biden claimed victory and President Trump’s lawyer held a press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping — the app jumped from 46th to 18th place in the ‘Social’ category for Android.

Then it kept going. By Thursday it was number one.

On the Apple Store, the app rose from 32nd to 7th in the ‘News’ category, and by Wednesday was ranked second, according to data from analytics firm AppTweak.

The same was happening in the US, where it had become the top free app.

Parler, its supporters said, was the ‘free speech’ Twitter — the place where…