Parler is suing Amazon after the technology company started the all-right social network of its web hosting services, claiming it is being targeted for political reasons and to reduce competition.
Amazon Web Services launched Parler from its cloud services just after midnight on Monday in Pacific time, and the site is inaccessible from 4:30 p.m. Amazon said it paid tribute to Parler because it did not trust the ability to monitor content on its platform that promotes or incites violence.
Amazon’s’ decision to effectively end Parler’s account is apparently motivated by political animus. It’s apparently also designed to reduce competition in the microblogging services market in favor of Twitter, ‘Parler said in a complaint filed Monday in Seattle federal court. It violates federal antitrust law, the company claims.
Parler also accused Amazon of using a double standard over other platforms, pointing out that Twitter recently signed a multi-year web hosting agreement with Amazon.
Parler is asking for a temporary restriction to ban Amazon from closing Parler’s account.
“This is tantamount to stretching a hospital patient for life support. It will kill Parler’s business. At the moment, it will skyrocket, the company said in its case.
“There is no merit to these claims. AWS provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum, and we respect Parler’s right to determine for itself what content it allows. However, it is clear that there is significant content on Parler is the one who encourages and incites violence against others, and that Parler is unable to immediately identify and remove this content, which is a violation of our Terms of Service, we announced Parler in a number of weeks and “During the time, we saw a ‘significant increase in this type of dangerous content, not a decrease, which led to the suspension of their services on Sunday night,’ an Amazon spokesman said in an email to CBS MoneyWatch. said.
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 launching from most major media platforms after Wednesday’s siege of the US Capitol. In addition to moving, Google and Apple have removed Parler from their app stores.
Had Parler’s CEO said it can beat offline for a week, though it can be optimistic. And even if it finds a friendlier web hosting service without a smartphone app, it’s hard to imagine Parler achieving major success.
The two-year-old magnet for the far-right claims more than 12 million users, though mobile app analytics firm Sensor Tower puts the global number at 10 million, up from 8 million in the US. This is a fraction of the 89 million followers that Mr. Trump had on Twitter.
Parler can still be attractive to mr. Trump, because this is where his sons Eric and Don Jr. already active.
Dropped from Google App Store
Parler was hit by the wind on Friday when Google chased his smartphone app out of its app store because it allowed messages to incite ‘continuing violence in the US’. Apple followed suit on Saturday night after Parler was given 24 hours to address complaints he is being used for ‘planning to facilitate more illegal and dangerous activities. “Public safety issues need to be resolved before they are repaired,” Apple said.
Amazon dealt another blow on Saturday and informed Parler that it would have to look for a new web hosting service on Sunday at midnight. It reminded Parler in a letter, first reported by Buzzfeed, that he had informed it over the past few weeks of 98 examples of posts ‘that clearly encourage and incite violence’ and said that the platform ” poses a real risk to public safety. ‘
Parler CEO John Matze punished the punishment as a coordinated attack by technology giants to kill competition in the market. “We were successful too quickly,” he said in a message Saturday night, saying Parler might no longer be available. to a week “if we rebuild from scratch.”
“Every provider, from texting services to email providers, to our lawyers, also dropped us all on the same day,” Matze said Sunday in Fox New Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. He said that while the company is trying to get back online as quickly as possible, it’s having a lot of problems’ because every supplier we talk to says they will not work with us because if Apple does not approve it and Google does not approve it. ‘
The loss of access to the Google and Apple app stores – the operating systems of which run hundreds of millions of smartphones – limited Parler’s reach, although it was still accessible via a web browser. The loss of Amazon Web Services means Parler will have to move up to find another web host in addition to the redevelopment.
Meanwhile, another site widely used by the far-right, Gab.com, has apparently benefited from Parler’s problems. Gab tweeted early Monday that it’s gained more users in the last two days than we did in our first two years of existence. ‘
Future of ideology-based platforms
While initially arguing their need to be neutral about speech, Twitter and Facebook gradually succumbed to public pressure and drew the line, especially when the so-called Plandemic video appeared early in the coronavirus pandemic, urging people to not wearing masks, noted Ethan Zuckerman, a civilian media professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Zuckerman expects the Trump platforming to spur significant online shifts. Among them a possible accelerated fragmentation of the social media world along ideological lines.
“Trump will attract a lot of audience wherever he goes,” he said. This could mean more platforms with smaller, more ideologically isolated audiences.
Mr. Trump could also launch his own platform. But that will not happen overnight, and freedom of speech experts expect growing pressure on all social media platforms to curb arson, as Americans take stock of the violent takeover of the U.S. Capitol by a Trump-fueled crowd on Wednesday .