In the saga of the Parler ban amidst the chaos at the Capitol, the so-called "free-speech" social media sues Amazon for cutting off its services.
Parler filed a federal lawsuit against the tech behemoth for dropping its Amazon Web Services (AWS) support for the platform after repeated "violent and threatening" content. As noted from Deadline, the complaint details the incident and accuses Amazon of eliminating the political alliance the company doesn't agree with.
"AWS's decision to effectively terminate Parler's account is apparently motivated by political animus. It is also apparently designed to reduce competition in the microblogging services market to the benefit of Twitter," the suit reads.
Since social media giants like Facebook and Twitter started labeling users' content, many have been outraged by the move and sought other sites as an alternative, including Parler. The platform saw an enormous spike in downloads amidst the last presidential election in the US.
Amazon's Response
Amazon vehemently denies the accusation, accusing Parler of playing a part in organizing the US Capitol's recent riot last Wednesday.
In a statement to Deadline, Amazon believes that "there is no merit to these claims," and reassures that the tech giant provides services across the political spectrum. What could be the last straw for it is Parler's failure to address the violence that occurred within its platform.
"However, it is clear that there is significant content on Parler that encourages and incites violence against others, and that Parler is unable or unwilling to promptly identify and remove this content, which is a violation of our terms of service," the statement reads.
Besides, this is not the first time Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, sparred with Donald Trump over a plethora of issues. The current POTUS made no attempt to hide his disdain for the tech mogul, calling him "Jeff Bozo" on his now-suspended Twitter account and alleging that his company scammed the US Post Office.
Tech Behemoths vs. Parler
Launched in 2018, Parler claimed to be a social media platform to promote free speech for every political spectrum. However, besides the Capitol riot accusation, hoaxes and misinformation about COVID-19 had been circulating freely on the now-taken down site.
Before Amazon cut off its AWS service, Apple and Google were among the first Big Techs to take a stance against Parler. The two removed the social media platform from their App Store and Play Store services before previously becoming the #1 most downloaded app on both.
"We're going to try our best to get back online as quickly as possible, but we're having a lot of trouble because every vendor we talk to says they won't work with us because if Apple doesn't approve and Google doesn't approve, they won't," Parler CEO told Fox News last Sunday (1/10).
