Social media platform Parler is suing Amazon for cutting it off from its servers for insufficiently moderating threats of violence.
Amazon claims that it removed Parler from its cloud-hosting service because Parler is not effectively identifying and removing violent content on its platform, following last week’s attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Parler’s lawsuit alleges that Amazon’s actions are unfair, anti-competitive, and politically motivated because Amazon has not taken any action against Twitter for similar violent content on its platform.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday afternoon, requests that a federal judge order Amazon Web Services to reinstate the platform using its servers.
“Without AWS, Parler is finished as it has no way to get online,” the lawsuit from Parler claims.
“Worse than the timing is the result—Parler has tried to find alternative companies to host it and they have fallen through. It has no other options,” the lawsuit reads.
Parler says that switching to a different service provider to host its platform would require significant changes to its website, which would cause the website to go offline for a “financially devastating period.”
Parler is battling other Big Tech companies as well, such as Apple and Google, which, along with Amazon, have brought the platform to a standstill. On Friday, before the onslaught, it was the most downloaded application in the country.
“This death blow by AWS could not come at a worse time for Parler— a time when the company is surging with the potential of even more explosive growth in the next few days,” the lawsuit alleges.
Amazon says it has stopped working with Parler because there are at least 98 examples of posts on the Parler website site that encouraged violence and that many remained active on Saturday, a few days after the attack on Capitol Hill.
Parler claims that its rival, Twitter, a giant in the social media market, has also violated Amazon’s terms of service with far “greater” examples of content that incites violence.
On Friday, just one day before Amazon announced it would stop working with Parler, one of the top trends on Twitter was “Hang Mike Pence,” with over 14,000 such ‘violent’ tweets.
“By pulling the plug on Parler but leaving Twitter alone despite identical conduct by users on both sites, AWS reveals that its expressed reasons for suspending Parler’s account are but pretext,” the lawsuit claims.
Furthermore, Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey has seemingly endorsed Amazon’s efforts to remove Parler. Parler says this supports their argument that their website has been taken down for anti-competitive reasons.
Parler’s lawsuit claims that despite removing “everything AWS had brought to its attention and more,” Amazon Web Services is still trying to hurt and defame Parler.
The social media platform, which is popular with conservatives, said that President Trump’s Twitter ban has caused the president and his supporters to move on to other platforms, and Parler is missing out on this unique opportunity due to Amazon’s “death knell.”
“Parler’s rival social media apps, such as conservative-oriented Gab or conservative media Rumble, are also experiencing record growth right now,” the lawsuit alleges.
“What is more, Parler’s current users are likely to leave and go to another platform if Parler is down for an indefinite period,” the lawsuit added.
John Matze, Parler’s CEO, said that by silencing his platform, Amazon was also silencing the free speech of millions of Parler users who do not feel adequately protected by Twitter or other social media companies.
