After Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram suspended President Donald Trump, many people migrated to Parler, which has now been dropped from Apple and Google’s app stores.
Following the attack on the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, many social media platforms suspended President Trump’s accounts, citing the potential dangers of allowing them to remain online. Due to the suspensions, many people moved to Parler, a platform focused on free speech. During the mass migration, several large tech companies took action against the platform.
“Every vendor from text message services to email providers to our lawyers all ditched us too on the same day,” John Matze, the founder and CEO of Parler, said on Fox News. “They claim that we somehow were responsible for what they call the insurrection on the 6th. We’ve never allowed violence, you know, we’ve never allowed any of this stuff on our platform, and we don’t even have a way to coordinate an event on our platform.”
Shortly after both Apple and Google removed Parler from their app stores, Amazon told Parler that it would be dropped from Amazon’s cloud hosting service, called Amazon Web Services (AWS).
“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,” Amazon said in a letter to Parler that was obtained by CNN.
On Twitter, many prominent Trump supporters posted about censorship, causing 1984 to become a trending topic. Some even dropped their use of the site in solidarity with those who had lost their accounts.
We are living Orwell’s 1984. Free-speech no longer exists in America. It died with big tech and what’s left is only there for a chosen few.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 9, 2021
This is absolute insanity! https://t.co/s2z8ymFsLX
“We are the closest thing to competition Facebook or Twitter has seen in many years. I believe Amazon, Google, Apple worked together to try and ensure they don’t have competition,” Matze wrote on Parler before Amazon pulled the plug.
Matze said Parler could be “unavailable on the internet for up to a week as we rebuild from scratch.” The website is currently down.
Parler CEO says that Amazon will be shutting down access to servers for Parler. Parler is likely to go dark for up to a week. pic.twitter.com/MvknHmeSW3
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) January 10, 2021
Parler sued Amazon on Monday morning, according to The Hill. The lawsuit claims Amazon broke antitrust laws and violated a contract between Parler and Amazon.
Judah Torgerud
Judah Torgerud is a freelance journalist working with Alpha News to keep the people informed and bring the truth to light. Contact him at whqnu@nycunarjfza.pbz.
