Amazon Ends Relationship With Parler After Capitol Protest

Amazon on Saturday announced it would stop providing cloud services to Parler. The announcement came after the site refused to join Twitter and Facebook in their unconstitutional ban against President Trump.

“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,” announced Amazon Web Services. “Given the unfortunate events that transpired this past week in Washington, DC, there is serious risk that this type of content will further incite violence.”

What is Parler?

Parler is a social media site that focuses on free speech. It has become popular among conservatives and Trump supporters as Facebook and Twitter continue to censor conservative content. Critics say Trump supporters used Parler to plan the attack on the US Capitol last week.

“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 encourage or incites violence against others,” said Amazon.

Without support from Amazon, Parler went offline while it searches for another hosting provider. Apple and Google’s app stores also removed the app based on its ‘failure to police violent content.’

According to Parler CEO John Matze, these moves aim to nip Parler in the bud: “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, who accused Amazon of ‘trying to completely remove free speech from the Internet,’ expects Parler to be banned unless “we give up free speech, institute broad and invasive politics like Twitter and Facebook, and we become a surveillance platform by pursuing guilt of those who use Parler before innocence.”

Sources:

Amazon employees call for company to cut ties with Parler after deadly US Capitol riot
Amazon cuts off Parler’s Web hosting following Apple, Google bans
Parler has now been booted by Amazon, Apple and Google

Parler offline following Amazon, Apple, Google bans over Capitol violence content