The conservative social network Parler is suing Amazon for suspension
The social platform Parler sued Amazon on Monday after the technology giant’s web department forced the conservative network offline in order not to force incentives for violence.
Nevada-based Parler asked a federal court for a restraining order to block Amazon Web Services from blocking access to Internet servers.
The trial comes amid a wave of actions by online giants abolishing access to supporters of President Donald Trump in the wake of last week’s US Capitol riots and alleged plans for new violent demonstrations.
The site’s popularity increased in recent weeks and became the leading free app in the Apple App Store after the much larger Twitter banned Trump from its platform for its role in the January 6 riot.
Announcements of support for Wednesday’s attack in Washington DC – along with talks about new demonstrations – had flourished on the platform, leading to Google removing it from its app store on Friday, followed by Apple on Saturday.
Amazon then confirmed that it would discontinue the platform from its cloud services to allow “threats of violence.”
In a letter to Parler’s owner, the web giant said it would discontinue the service at 23.59 on Sunday (0759 GMT Monday).
The tracking site down for all or just me showed Parler offline just after midnight, indicating that its owner has not been able to find a new web hosting partner.
Parler CEO announces that the entire system has been shut down, no vendors will touch them and it will be offline for the foreseeable future. pic.twitter.com/gQKsKWX9GR
– Don Winslow (@donwinslow) January 11, 2021
In a series of posts on Parler on Saturday, CEO John Matze said the site would crash the next day, accusing tech giants of a “war on free speech.”
“They will NOT win! We are the world’s last hope for freedom of speech and information,” he said.
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Far right and traditional Republican users
The social network, which was launched in 2018, works much like Twitter, with profiles that people can follow and “parleys” instead of tweets.
In its early days, the platform attracted a lot of ultra-conservative or even far-right users.
But it now attracts many more traditional Republican voices.
>> Read more: After abolishing Trump, Big Tech takes a new course in Washington
Fox News star Sean Hannity has 7.6 million followers, while his colleague Tucker Carlson has 4.4 million.
Among the officials elected today are Republicans Devin Nunes, a California congressman, and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.
Trump is not known for having a Parler profile.
Parlor’s latest growth was overloaded after last week’s violence in DC when new users, furious over Twitter’s ban on Trump, flocked to the app and demanded new protests.
In a now deleted post, an account claiming to belong to Lin Wood, a lawyer for Trump, called for Vice President Mike Pence to face a firing squad – threats that US media have reported led to a secret service investigation.
( Jowharwith AFP)
