Parler CEO John Matze argues that the suspension of Amazon, Apple’s social media platform and ” a good example ‘of antitrust.
The alternative social media platform Parler went down early Monday after Amazon Web Services’ decision to suspend Parler from its cloud hosting service after the US riot in Capitol on Wednesday.
CEO John Matze told users to ‘hold on and come back’ as the company found out how to proceed during an interview on ‘Mornings with Maria’ on Monday.
APPLE AND GOOGLE CRUSH PARLER FROM THEIR APP STORES
“Everyone has to hold on and come back,” Matze said. “We may have to go so far as to buy and build our own data centers and buy our own servers if we have to get back on the internet, but there is a risk involved, given what merchants do, the extent to which they get rid of us. ‘
“It’s going to be devastating for our business, our model, our potential to raise future capital,” he continued. “It can happen to anyone at any time.”
Google suspended Parler from its app store on Friday for failing to moderate the “serious content” posted by users related to the violent siege on Capitol Hill last week.
Parler is criticized for Wednesday’s riot that stormed President Trump’s supporters in the US Capitol, attacked police, vandalized the building and stole items from inside.
Screenshots taken from Parler and shared on other social media platforms apparently show that users of Parler openly discuss the plans for violence during the protest that preceded the attack on the Capitol, including bringing weapons and suggesting how they oppose it would use their political opponents.
“No one has provided any credible information or evidence that there are issues on Parler that do not exist on other platforms,” Matze said Monday. “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. “
According to Amazon, the move was made for violating Amazon Web Services’ terms of service by not dealing effectively with the steady increase in violent content, according to an email by an AWS Trust and Safety team to Parler, seen by Reuters.
An Amazon spokesman confirmed that the letter was authentic.
This illustration photo shows the Parler social media application logo displayed on a smartphone with its website in the background in Arlington, Virginia, on July 2, 2020. (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP via Getty Images) (OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP via Getty Images)
Like Google, Apple has suspended Parler from its App Store, even though it rose to No. 1 spot in the free apps section earlier in the day.
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“If it violates our Terms of Service, we’ll remove it. Honestly, I’m not interested in using our platform or any other platform as a tool for violence and the spread of violence … but Amazon, Apple and Google does not care, “Matze said Monday. “They use it as an opportunity to bump into the first real competitor in this space in so many years. It shows that we can challenge the market. If they realize that the markets are debatable, they bump into competition. If there is a case for antitrust is, I think it’s a pretty good example that the first real tangible competitor hit so fast, so hard. “
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Meanwhile, Gab, another budding social media platform, welcomed Matze and Parler users while the site was down.
“We welcome John Matze, Dan Bongino and everyone on Parler to talk freely about Gab as they work to get the platform back online,” Gab wrote on his official Twitter account.
Fox Business’ Talia Kaplan, Audrey Conklin, James Leggate and Brittany De Lea contributed to this report.