John Matze, Parler CEO, will join CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on July 2, 2020.
CNBC
The social network Parler is suing Amazon for discontinuing its cloud computing support after the deadly uprising in the US Capitol.
Parler was popular with conservatives and supporters of President Donald Trump and relied on AWS ‘cloud computing services. However, AWS withdrew its support this week after it concluded that posts on Parler “clearly encourage and encourage violence.”
In a lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Seattle, Parler accused Amazon Web Services of violating antitrust laws.
“AWS’s decision to effectively terminate Parler’s account is apparently motivated by political animations,” the lawsuit said. “It is also apparently intended to reduce competition in the market for microblogging services in favor of Twitter.”
It goes on: “This emergency lawsuit seeks an injunction against defendant Amazon Web Services to prevent Parler’s account from being closed. This is like pulling the plug on a hospital patient for life support. It will bring Parler’s business to a standstill at just that Time when it will skyrocket. “
An AWS spokesman told CNBC that the allegations have no value, while Parler did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
“It is clear that there is significant content on Parler that promotes and incites violence against others and that Parler is unable or unwilling to promptly identify and remove such content in violation of our Terms of Use.” an AWS spokesman told CNBC.
“We’ve shared our concerns with Parler for several weeks and during that time we’ve seen a significant increase in this type of dangerous content, not a decrease that resulted in us closing their services on Sunday evening.”
Apple and Google remove Parler
Parler app screenshots viewed by CNBC show users posting references to firing squads, as well as calls for guns to be brought to Joe Biden’s inauguration next week.
In the lawsuit, Parler’s attorneys ask why AWS is not removing support for Twitter, which is also an AWS customer.
AWS “stated that the reason for the suspension was because AWS was not certain that Parler could properly monitor its platform for content that encourages or incites violence against others,” the lawsuit said. “Hang Mike Pence was one of the most popular tweets on Twitter on Friday night, but AWS has no plans or threats to suspend Twitter’s account.”
Twitter declined to comment.
Parler became the number one free downloaded app on Apple’s App Store after Twitter announced it was permanently banning Trump from its platform. “Conservative users fled en masse from Twitter to Parler,” said the lawsuit.
However, Apple removed Parler from the iPhone app store on Saturday, a day after Google removed Parler from its Android app store.
John Matze, founder and CEO of Parler, condemned the moves of the tech giants. In a series of posts about Parler over the weekend, he said his platform had removed the violent content and added that community guidelines do not allow Parler to be knowingly used for criminal activity.
Matze said Monday that the Parler app will be down “longer than expected” as other cloud hosting companies refuse to partner with Parler in light of press releases from Amazon, Google and Apple.
“This is not due to software restrictions. We have our software and all data ready. Rather, statements by Amazon, Google and Apple to the press about the blocking of our access have meant that most of our other providers have stopped supporting us . ” good, “said Matze.
He added, “Most people with enough servers to host us have closed their doors to us. We’ll all update and update the press when we get back online.”
Parler has transferred its domain name to Epik, which hosts the similar far-right social media network Gab. However, a hosting provider has yet to be found.
Gab, a social network known for its far-right user base and frequent hate speech, appears to be benefiting from the aftermath. On Monday, Gab CEO Andrew Torba announced that the platform had gained 600,000 new users.
– CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report.
