Conservative social network Parler sues Amazon over shutdown

The social platform Parler sued Amazon Monday after the tech giant's web division forced the conservative-friendly network offline for failing to rein in incitements to violence.

Issued on: 11/01/2021 - 21:01

Social platform Parler sued Amazon on Jan. 11, 2021 ter the tech giant's web division forced the network offline for failing to control incitements to violence. © Olivier Douliery, AFP

Text by: FRANCE 24 Follow

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Nevada-based Parler asked a federal court for a restraining order to block Amazon Web Services from cutting off access to internet servers.

The lawsuit comes amid a wave of action by online giants cutting off access to supporters of President Donald Trump in the wake of last week's US Capitol riots and purported plans for new violent demonstrations.

The site's popularity soared in recent weeks, becoming the number one free app in Apple's App Store after the much larger Twitter banned Trump from its platform for his role in inciting the January 6 riot.

Messages of support for Wednesday's attack in Washington DC -- along with calls for new demonstrations -- had flourished on the platform, leading Google to remove it from its app store on Friday, followed by Apple on Saturday.

Amazon then confirmed it would suspend the platform from its cloud hosting services for allowing "threats of violence."

In a letter to Parler's owners, the web giant said it would suspend service by 11:59 PM on Sunday (0759 GMT Monday).

Tracking website Down For Everyone Or Just Me showed Parler offline just after midnight, suggesting its owners had not been able to find a new hosting partner.

Parler CEO announces their entire system has been shut down, no vendors will touch them, and that 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 go down the following day, and accused the tech giants of a "war on free speech."

"They will NOT win! We are the worlds last hope for free speech and free information," he said.

Extreme right and traditional Republican users

The social network, launched in 2018, operates much like Twitter, with profiles people can follow and "parleys" instead of tweets.

In its early days, the platform attracted a crowd of ultra-conservative or even extreme-right users.

But it now attracts many more traditional Republican voices.

Fox News star host Sean Hannity has 7.6 million followers, while his colleague Tucker Carlson has 4.4 million.

Elected officials present include Republicans Devin Nunes, a California congressman, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.

Trump is not known to have a Parler profile.

Parler's recent growth was supercharged after last week's violence in DC as new users, furious over Twitter's ban on Trump, flocked to the app calling for fresh protests.

In one now-deleted post, an account purporting to belong to Lin Wood, a pro-Trump lawyer, called for Vice President Mike Pence to be put in front of a firing squad -- threats which US media have reported led to a secret service investigation.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)