On Saturday, Amazon removed the social media platform Parler from its web hosting servers. Parler, a social network favored by conservatives, is targeted after the riots at the US Capitol on Wednesday and in the aftermath of President Donald Trump migrating to the platform, after being banned by social media giants Twitter and Facebook is.
# BREAK Amazon suspended # Parler‘s web service account leaves the platform offline until they find a new host. The news comes after Apple and Google removed the app from their stores. #AppStore # Amazon # Twitter
– Eric Wasserman? “WASS” (@ EricWasserman1) 10 January 2021
Parler will have to find another hosting service, otherwise the platform could be offline as early as Sunday.
According to an email obtained by BuzzFeed, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Trust and Safety team Amy Peikoff, Parler’s chief policy officer, said calls for violence against Parler violated his terms of service. Amazon added that “This morning you said that you have a plan to moderate violent content more proactively, but that you want to do it manually with volunteers. We believe this emerging plan to use volunteers to deliver dangerous content immediately identify and remove, will not work in light of the rapidly growing number of violent posts. ‘
The email continued, “Recently we saw a gradual increase in this violent content on your site, all of which violate our terms. It’s clear that Parler does not have an effective process to comply with the AWS Terms of Service , “the e-mail reads:” We can not provide services to a customer who can not effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others. Because Parler can not meet our terms of service and a “We do not see much real risk to public safety, we plan to suspend Parler’s account on Sunday 10 January at 23:59 PST.”
Google removed Parler from their app store on Friday, shortly after US President Donald Trump created a Parler account, prompting crowds around the world to migrate to Parler as well.
Earlier on Friday, Apple gave Parler 24 hours to “clean up” certain posts that they said were “incitement to violence” or would also be banned in their App Store. Apple did not specify which posts they were referring to and banned Parler on Saturday afternoon.
John Matze, CEO of Parler, issued an announcement on the platform to notify its users of the impending shutdown of the platform. He stated that the website was expected to be offline for at least a week and that the company was ‘prepared for events like this’. He said Parler would meanwhile try to find a new host provider.
