Parler CEO John Matze argues that the suspension of Amazon, Apple’s social media platform and ” a good example ‘of antitrust.
Alternative social media platform Parler filed a lawsuit against Amazon on Monday following Amazon Web Services’ decision to suspend Parler from its cloud hosting service following the deadly riot at the US Capitol last week.
Parler is seeking a temporary restriction to withhold Amazon Web Services (AWS) from Parler, claiming Amazon Web Services is violating the Sherman Antitrust Act in the submission.
SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM PARLER GOES DARK TO AMAZON WOLS DISCOUNT
“AWS’s decision to terminate Parler’s account effectively is apparently motivated by political animus,” Parler claims in its submission. “AWS violates Article 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act in combination with accused Twitter. AWS also violates[s] contract with Parler, which requires AWS to give Parler a notice of thirty days before terminating his service, rather than the notice of less than thirty hours that AWS actually provided. Finally, AWS is intentionally interfering with prospective economic benefit, given the millions of users expected to sign up in the near future. “
This illustration photo shows Parler’s social media application logo displayed on a smartphone on July 2, 2020 with his website in the background in Arlington, Virginia. (OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP via Getty Images)
Parler claims he is being discriminated against because it is in direct competition with the giant Twitter on social media.
“Last month, the accused Amazon Web Services, Inc. (” AWS “) and the popular social media platform Twitter signed a multi-year agreement so that AWS could support the daily delivery of millions of tweets. AWS currently provides the same service to Parler, ” a conservative microblogging alternative and rival to Twitter, ‘reads the documentation.
“When Twitter announced two nights ago that it was permanently banning President Trump from its platform, conservative users began massively fleeing Twitter for Parler. The outing was so great that Parler became the number one free app the next day, yesterday. downloaded from Apple’s App Store. “
Parler went dark early Monday after AWS’s decision to suspend Parler from its cloud hosting service.
CEO John Matze told users in an interview on ‘Mornings with Maria’ on Monday to ‘hold on and come back’ while the company finds out how to move forward.
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“No one has provided any credible information or evidence that there are issues on Parler that do not exist on other platforms,” Matze said. “It’s really a double standard. screenshots. I do not understand, you know, what it’s really about. Because it’s not about keeping everyone equal. It’s about preferential treatment for certain people. “
The lawsuit comes as Google and Apple also took action against Parler in the wake of a riot against Trump at the U.S. Capitol and suspended it from their app store on Friday for failing to provide “bad content” by users regarding the violent siege last week.
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FOX Business’ inquiries to Amazon and Parler were not immediately returned.
FOX Business’ Talia Kaplan, Audrey Conklin, James Leggate and Brittany De Lea contributed to this report.