The Parler logo is displayed on a smartphone with the Google, Amazon and Apple logos in the background on the PC screen. Google, Apple and Amazon have suspended the social networking app Parler.
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Amazon defended its decision to drop Parler from its web hosting service in response to a lawsuit filed by the social media app earlier this week.
In lawsuits late Tuesday, Amazon said it flagged dozens of pieces of violent content to the social media app as of November. The company alleged that Parler had breached its contract with Amazon’s cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS), when it failed to remove the content, and that AWS had suspended Parler’s account “as a last resort.”
“This case is not about suppressing speech or stifling views,” Amazon wrote in its response to Parler. “It is not about conspiracy to curb trade. Instead, this case is about Parler’s demonstrated reluctance and inability to remove AWS content from the servers that threatens public safety, such as inciting and planning rape. , torture and murder of said public, officials and individuals.
Amazon pulled the plug last week on Parler, a social media app popular with Trump supporters, in the wake of the deadly uprising at the Capitol. Parler filed a lawsuit against Amazon on Monday, accusing Amazon of violating its contract and antitrust laws. Parler also asked the court for a temporary restraining order to force AWS to restore her account.
In its response to Parler’s lawsuit, Amazon argued that restoring the web service to Parler would likely be detrimental to the public and outweigh “any speculative harm Parler claims to suffer” due to the site being offline.
It also refuted Parler’s claim that AWS had violated antitrust laws by refusing its service. It cited section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a Silicon Valley-favored law that is increasingly under attack by lawmakers, which protects tech companies from liability for what users post on their platforms.
Amazon said it began reporting content violating its terms of service to Parler on November 17 last year. Over the next seven weeks, Amazon reported that it had reported more than 100 additional pieces of content advocating violence.
Amazon included some examples of that content in exhibits filed alongside its lawsuit, including death threats against members of Congress, tech company executives such as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, as well as US Capitol Police, among other groups. In some Parler posts, users threatened to “burn down Amazon delivery trucks and Apple stores” and “seize Amazon’s servers.”
“We should gather peacefully outside the homes and businesses of all these tech tyrants, then peacefully protest and peacefully loot and burn them,” a Parler post said, the court’s indictment said.
Amazon said content encouraging violence grew after the violence in the US Capitol by some Trump supporters on Wednesday, which left five dead. Following the riot, politicians and the public have called on social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube to moderate their platforms more to avoid incitement to violence.
Amazon held phone calls with Parler executives after the riots, where it raised concerns about Parler’s ineffective moderation strategies, including relying on volunteers to report content. Parler CEO John Matze said during one of those phone calls that the site was behind 26,000 reports of content that breached the policy and was still on the site, the petitioner said.
“Parler’s own failures left AWS little choice but to suspend Parler’s account,” Amazon said in the filing.
Parler did not respond to a request for comment. Amazon previously said there was “no merit” to the claims set forth in Parler’s lawsuit.