Amazon is asking a federal judge to let Parler go offline, saying that the conservative media site has rejected calls from the Amazon Web Services division for Parler to police its violent content before and after the Capitol insurrection.
The tech company’s legal appeal on Tuesday came in response to Parler lawsuit alleging antitrust violation and breach of contract after Amazon suspended Parler’s account, effectively banning it from the internet.
Amazon Web Services launched Parler from its cloud services just after midnight Pacific time on Monday, with the site inaccessible online from 4:30 am ET. Amazon said it abandoned Parler because it was not confident in the site’s ability to monitor the content of its platform to promote or incite violence.
“This case is not about suppressing speech or stifling points of view,” Amazon’s lawyers said in a lawsuit. “Instead, this case is about Parler’s demonstrated reluctance and inability to remove content that threatens public security from Amazon Web Services (‘AWS’) servers, such as incitement and planning for rape, torture and murder of appointed public officials. and private citizens. “
Parler’s refusal to moderate content has resulted in a “steady increase” in violent content on the network, violating Amazon’s terms of service, AWS said.
“First, Amazon must think it has a strong case here that would set a good precedent for them in the future. And, second, Amazon wants the broader audience – or at least the broader business community – to see its response. here, “said Max Kornblith, co-founder and head of growth at FairShake, a company that helps consumers resolve disputes with service providers through arbitration processes.
He noted that Amazon’s standard customer contract would probably have allowed them to withdraw the lawsuit from public courts, if Amazon had wanted to do so.
The platform’s right-wing popularity soared after the November election and was seen as a likely vehicle for President Donald Trump to reach his followers after being kicked out of most media platforms after Wednesday’s siege of the United States Capitol. In addition to Amazon’s move, Google and Apple removed Parler from their app stores.
In his complaint lodged on Monday, Parler argued that “Amazon’s decision to effectively close Parler’s account is apparently motivated by political animosity. Apparently, it was also designed to reduce competition in the microblogging services market for the benefit of Twitter, “he claimed.