Parler is suing Amazon after the tech company launches the social network that the far right favors from its web hosting services, alleging that it is targeted for political reasons and to reduce competition.
Amazon Web Services launched Parler from its cloud services just after midnight Pacific Time Monday, while the site was unreachable from 4:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Amazon said it dropped Parler because it was unsure of its ability to track content on its platform that promotes or incites violence.
Amazon’s decision to effectively terminate Parler’s account is apparently motivated by political animus. It also apparently aims to reduce competition in the market for microblogging services in favor of Twitter, Parler said in a complaint filed Monday at federal court in Seattle. That violates federal antitrust law, the company claims.
Parler also accused Amazon of using a double standard over other platforms, pointing out that Twitter had recently signed a multi-year web hosting deal with Amazon.
Parler is asking for a temporary restraining order that prevents Amazon from closing Parler’s account.
“This is the equivalent of unplugging a living in hospital patient. It will kill Parler’s case – right when it goes up, the company said in its suit.
“These claims are of no value. AWS provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum, and we respect Parler’s right to control what content it allows. However, it is clear that there is significant content on Parler that encourages and encourages. incites violence against others, and that Parler is unable or unwilling to immediately identify and remove this content, which is a violation of our terms of service. We have expressed our concerns to Parler for several weeks and during that time we saw a significant increase in this type of dangerous content, not a decrease, which led to our suspension of their services on Sunday night, ”an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images
The conservative platform’s popularity rose after the November election and was seen as a likely way for President Donald Trump to reach his followers after booting off most mainstream media platforms following the siege of the Capitol on Wednesday. In addition to moving, Google and Apple have removed Parler from their app stores.
The CEO of Talking had said that could knock it offline for a week, although that might be optimistic. And even if it finds a more friendly web hosting service, without a smartphone app, it’s hard to imagine Parler achieving mainstream success.
The 2-year-old magnet for the far-right claims more than 12 million users, although Sensor Tower, a mobile app analytics company, estimates the number at 10 million worldwide, with 8 million in the U.S. That’s a fraction of the 89 million followers that Mr. Trump had on Twitter.
Still, Parler may be attractive to Mr. Trump because his sons Eric and Don Jr. are already active there.
Pulled from the Google App Store
Parler faced headwinds on Friday when Google ripped off its smartphone app from its app store for allowing postings that “incite ongoing violence in the US.” Apple followed suit Saturday night after Parler gave 24 hours to deal with complaints that it was being used to “plan and facilitate even more illegal and dangerous activities.” According to Apple, public safety issues must be resolved before it is remedied.
Amazon dealt another blow on Saturday, informing Parler that it should start looking for a new web hosting service from midnight on Sunday. It reminded Parler in a letter first reported by Buzzfeed that it had briefed 98 examples of messages in recent weeks “clearly inciting violence” and said the platform “poses a very real risk to the public safety”.
Parler CEO John Matze condemned the punishments as “a coordinated attack by the tech giants to kill competition in the marketplace.” We were too successful too soon, ”he said in a Saturday night post, adding that Parler might not be available for up to a week“ while we rebuild from scratch. ”
“Every vendor, from text messaging services to email providers, to our attorneys, dumped us all on the same day,” Matze said on Fox New Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” Sunday. He said that while the company is trying to get back online as soon as possible, it “has a lot of problems because every vendor we talk to says they won’t work with us because if Apple doesn’t approve and Google doesn’t approve, they won’t. they don’t. “
The loss of access to Google’s and Apple’s app stores – whose operating systems power hundreds of millions of smartphones – severely limited Parler’s reach, although it was still accessible through the web browser. Losing Amazon Web Services forces Parler to look for another web host in addition to the re-engineering.
Meanwhile, another site widely used by the far right, Gab.com, apparently took advantage of Parler’s troubles. Gab tweeted early Monday that it “had gotten more users in the last two days than in the first two years we were there”.
Future of Ideology-Based Platforms
While Twitter and Facebook initially expressed their need to be neutral on speech, they are gradually yielding to public pressure, drawing the line, especially when the so-called Plandemic video surfaced early in the coronavirus pandemic urging people not to wear masks, noted ethan Zuckerman from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Zuckerman expects Trump’s de-platforming could cause significant online shifts. Among them, a possible accelerated fragmentation of the social media world along ideological lines.
“Trump will attract a lot of audiences everywhere he goes,” he said. That could mean more platforms with a smaller, more ideologically isolated audience.
Mr. Trump can also launch his own platform. But that won’t happen overnight, and freedom of speech experts anticipate mounting pressure on all social media platforms to curb incendiary language as Americans take stock of the violent takeover of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday by a mob incited by Trump.