Conservative commentator and Parler co-owner Dan Bongino said he will “go bankrupt” before allowing Big Tech to win by deplatforming the upstart social media company.
“Parler will be back, just so the audience understands,” Bongino said during an appearance on Fox & Friends. “I will go bankrupt and destitute before I let this happen.”
Bongino said his recent cancer diagnosis “opened my eyes to the world” and that he doesn’t care what “anyone thinks anymore.”
“My eyes are wide open,” Bongino said. “Parler will be back … by the end of the week.”
Parler was shut down late Sunday after Amazon decided to suspend hosting the network on its servers after last week’s siege of the Capitol. The decision was made after other technology giants, including Apple and Google, removed Parler’s app from their stores, citing the platform’s lack of moderation for “egregious content.”
“We’re aware of continued posting in the Parler app that seeks to incite ongoing violence in the U.S.,” a Google spokesperson told Fox News. “In light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat, we are suspending the app’s listings from the Play Store until it addresses these issues.”
Bongino said he has “begged” people to support Parler, which he says has a “terms of service” that users must abide by but also promises to be open to free speech.
“Anyone can go to a … post and report it because it’s violent and it violates our terms of service,” Bongino said.
Despite his ownership stake in the company, Bongino said his support is “not about the money” but about ensuring competition to Big Tech. He also pushed back at those arguing that companies should be allowed to ban the app as private companies engaged in “free market” enterprise.
“It’s a free market? Because Twitter and Facebook are subsidized by the United States government’s law, Section 230, where they are allowed to pull down and leave up whatever they want, and they are immune to lawsuits due to 230,” Bongino said. “But when Parler, which is not a surveillance platform, abides by the very same text of the law, 230, Parler is wiped from the face of the earth and doesn’t get the government subsidy.”
“So to all you geniuses out there: Please explain to me again how this is a free market argument when a potentially trillion-dollar subsidy is given to favorite enterprises but not to Parler, who actually follows the law,” Bongino continued.
Parler CEO John Matze said on Monday that the platform may be down “longer than expected” as the company looks to find a hosting company willing to do business with it.
“We will likely be down longer than expected,” Matze said. “This is not due to software restrictions — we have our software and everyone’s data ready to go. Rather, it’s that Amazon’s, Google’s, and Apple’s statements to the press about dropping our access has caused most of our other vendors to drop their support for us as well.”
“Most people with enough servers to host us have shut their doors to us. We will update everyone and update the press when we are back online,” Matze added.
