With the news that Trump opened an account with Parler, which is used by conservatives after he was kicked off Twitter, Republican Party members and Trump supporters in the USA became the target of technology giants. Google and Apple banned it from their respective app stores.
Contents allegedly promote violence
The day after Parler was suspended from Apple and Google’s app stores for failing to remove content promoting violence, Amazon has also suspended the company from its web hosting platform. Now, unless Parler finds another web hosting service, it will go offline following Sunday night. Amazon Web Services said that in recent weeks it has reported 98 examples to Parler of posts that clearly encourage and incite violence. The letter includes screenshots of several examples. Here is the full letter of Amazon to Parler.
Dear Amy,
Thank you for speaking with us earlier today.
As we discussed on the phone yesterday and this morning, we remain troubled by the repeated violations of our terms of service. Over the past several weeks, we’ve reported 98 examples to Parler of posts that clearly encourage and incite violence. Here are a few examples below from the ones we’ve sent previously.Recently, we’ve seen a steady increase in this violent content on your website, all of which violates our terms. It’s clear that Parler does not have an effective process to comply with the AWS terms of service. It also seems that Parler is still trying to determine its position on content moderation. You remove some violent content when contacted by us or others, but not always with urgency. Your CEO recently stated publicly that he doesn’t “feel responsible for any of this, and neither should the platform.” This morning, you shared that you have a plan to more proactively moderate violent content, but plan to do so manually with volunteers. It’s our view that this nascent plan to use volunteers to promptly identify and remove dangerous content will not work in light of the rapidly growing number of violent posts. This is further demonstrated by the fact that you still have not taken down much of the content that we’ve sent you. Given the unfortunate events that transpired this past week in Washington, D.C., there is a serious risk that this type of content will further incite violence.
AWS provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum, and we continue to respect Parler’s right to determine for itself what content it will allow on its site. However, we cannot provide services to a customer that is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others. Because Parler cannot comply with our terms of service and poses a very real risk to public safety, we plan to suspend Parler’s account effective Sunday, January 10th, at 11:59 PM PST. We will ensure that all of your data is preserved for you to migrate to your own servers, and will work with you as best as we can to help your migration.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey posted a picture of the Top Charts on the App Store. Before the ban, Parler had been the most downloaded app.
Parler’s CEO John Matze responded by posting a screenshot of Dorsey’s tweet and adding his own comment:
“Yeah, we were number one until the fake news rage mob at Twitter and your anti-competitive friends went after us. That’s real cute.”
Parler’s CEO John Matze said that that the company had prepared for such an event, “by never relying on Amazon proprietary infrastructure and building bare metal products.” He accused Amazon, Google, and Apple of a coordinated attack to kill competition. “We were too successful too fast. You can expect the war on competition and free speech to continue, but don’t count us out” wrote Matze.
American social networking app Parler is an unbiased social media focused on real user experiences and engagement. After popular social networks like Twitter and Facebook tightened their moderation policies, Parler has become popular among supporters of President Trump.
Recent news about Parler:
- Parler.com partially reemerges with help from Russian-owned service – January 20, 2021
- Parler.com website back, but have some technical issues – January 18, 2021
- Epik has no plans to host Parler – January 16, 2021
- Amazon warns AWS employees against bomb threats – January 12, 2021
- Parler.com domain moves to Epik – January 12, 2021
- Parler filed a lawsuit against Amazon – January 12, 2021