Parler sues AWS after Amazon knocks service offline

Parler went offline shortly after 3am EST Monday after Amazon booted the platform off its web hosting service, effectively shutting the site down. As we reported previous year Parler had become a popular destination for those of a more right-wing persuasion anxious about Twitter's censorship policies. "And a delay of granting this TRO by even one day could also sound Parler's death knell as President (Donald) Trump and others move on to other platforms".

The wave of Trump followers flocking to the service was short-lived.

On Friday, Google yanked it from its app store for allowing postings that seek "to incite ongoing violence in the U.S".

Apple instituted its own Parler ban on Saturday.

"I think what we're seeing with Parler, with Twitter, with social media is that there is kind of a lack of understanding of the concept of the first amendment among many Americans", said Andrew Selepak, a social media professor at the University of Florida.

Parler CEO John Matze denounced the decisions as a "coordinated attack by the tech giants to kill competition in the market place".

Nevada-based Parler asked a federal court for a restraining order to block Amazon Web Services from cutting off access to internet servers.

In addition, "AWS is also breaching it [s] contract with Parler, which requires AWS to provide Parler with a thirty-day notice before terminating service, rather than the less than thirty-hour notice AWS actually provided".

Amazon declined to comment on the filing.

Parler attorney David Groesbeck said by email Monday that the company is awaiting a hearing on the lawsuit.

Amazon denied that it interfered in Parler's relationship with its users, and claimed that Parler's antitrust allegations do not meet the basic threshold required for a Sherman Act claim.

After the deadly riots at the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday, Parler became a central target of Big Tech over allegations that it was hosting content that helped incite the violence.

Organizers of pro-Trump forces are already regrouping in other forums, such as the conservative-friendly social media site Gab, as new actions are planned ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.

"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", he added.