Parler.com is coming back online after being kicked out of Amazon’s hosting service, with the controversial social network saying it no longer depends on “Big Tech” for its web infrastructure. An announcement by Parler said that its relaunched website is “built on the basis of independent and sustainable technology and does not depend on the so-called ‘Big Tech’ for its operations”.
Amazon cut Parler’s web hosting service on January 10, a few days after a crowd incited by Trump invaded the United States Capitol, saying “Parler cannot comply with our terms of service and represents a very real risk to public security “. Parler sued Amazon in response, but a federal judge denied Parler’s request for an injunction that would have forced Amazon to reinstate its services.
Now, Parler is using hosting services from a company called SkySilk. Parler said his website is available this week only to users who already have an account. New users, on the other hand, will be able to sign up next week. While existing users can now log in to Parler, their old posts have been removed from the site, TechCrunch reported.
“When Parler was taken down in January by those who wish to silence tens of millions of Americans, our team came together, determined to deliver on our promise to our highly engaged community that we would be back stronger than ever.” Acting Parler CEO Mark Meckler in the announcement. “Parler is run by an experienced team and is here to stay. We will succeed as the leading social media platform dedicated to freedom of expression, privacy and civil dialogue.” (Meckler, who co-founded the Tea Party Patriots in 2009, replaced the recently dismissed CEO John Matze as head of Parler.)
Amazon said in a lawsuit that it cut Parler because of his “proven reluctance and inability to remove content that threatens public safety from Amazon Web Services servers, for example, inciting and planning rape, torture and murder of people named public officials. and private citizens. “
In new Parler posts today, Parler’s official account said, “We will not be canceled”, while Meckler wrote, “Parler is live and it feels so good!” Here is a screenshot:
Parler traffic on a new path
Parler’s traffic is passing through a data center in Ohio managed by CloudRoute and from there to a SkySilk data center in Los Angeles, where SkySilk exchanges Internet traffic with NTT. This is confirmed by traces of dozens of major cities across the Americas, Europe and Asia. We contacted NTT today and will update this article if we receive a response.
CloudRoute and SkySilk seem to be connected in some way and may, in the end, be part of the same company. CloudRoute’s CEO, Andre Temnorod, denied or downplayed any connection, telling The New York Times that “SkySilk is our customer and Parler is SkySilk customer.” However, Whois information lists Temnorod’s email and other CloudRoute email addresses as contacts for SkySilk. SkySilk CEO Kevin Matossian “confirmed to NPR that the company is providing web hosting services for Parler”, according to NPR reporter Bobby Allyn.
CloudRoute is described by Scamalytics as “an ISP with a potentially high risk of fraud”, with about 56% of ISP traffic “suspected of being potentially fraudulent”. We contacted CloudRoute and SkySilk today and will update this article if we receive a response.
CloudRoute presents itself as a Microsoft partner, but that does not necessarily mean that any Parler.com content is hosted on Microsoft’s cloud services. Parler is a Microsoft Office 365 user for email, and Microsoft employees debated last month whether to stop providing Parler with the service. We contacted Microsoft today and will update this article if we receive a response.
Parler.com last month changed its domain to Epik, a domain registrar that also provides services to Gab, who is known for hosting anti-Semitic content. Parler at some point last month was using services from the Russian company DDoS-Guard, but apparently he is no longer.
Congressional research
As reported last week, a Congressional oversight committee is investigating whether Parler has financial ties to Russian entities, saying the social network “allowed Russian disinformation to flourish” before the 2020 US election. The House Oversight and Reform Committee is also reviewing a BuzzFeed report that Parler offered the Trump Organization a 40% stake in exchange for then President Donald Trump, making Parler his primary social network. The negotiations “were hampered by the events of January 6,” the report said.
Parler’s community guidelines state: “We prefer that removal of users or user-provided content be kept to an absolute minimum” and that Parler’s policies are “neutral in terms of views”. However, the guidelines say that “Parler will not intentionally allow himself to be used as a tool for crimes, civil unlawful acts or other illegal acts. We will remove the reported user content that a reasonable and objective observer believes constitutes or evidences such activity. We can also remove user accounts that use our platform in this way. “
Ars Technology reporter Jim Salter contributed to this report.