Amazon on Saturday launched Parler from its web hosting services. Parler, a social network favored by conservative and extremist politicians, was used to help plan and coordinate the January 6 coup attempt in Washington DC. It was recently overrun with messages encouraging “Patriots” to march on Washington DC with weapons on January 19.
Parler’s suspension of Amazon’s account means that unless he finds another host, once the ban takes effect on Sunday, Parler will go offline.
Amazon declined to comment on the suspension. Parler has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Republican lawmakers, including Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Devin Nunes as well as President Donald Trump’s relatives and deputies, they all set up accounts at Parler and publicly encouraged their supporters to join them there. The same happened to many figures in the conservative media.
In an email obtained by BuzzFeed News, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) trust and security team told Parler policy director Amy Peikoff that the calls for violence propagated in Parler violated its terms of service and that the Amazon is not convinced that the plan to use the service volunteers to moderate such things will be effective.
“We recently saw a steady increase in this violent content on your website, which violates our terms. Of course, Parler does not have an effective process for complying with AWS terms of service, ”says the email. “[W]and we are unable to provide services to a customer who is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others, ”says the email. “Since Parler is unable to comply with our terms of service and represents a real risk to public security, we plan to suspend Parler’s account starting Sunday, January 10, at 11:59 pm PST.”
On Saturday afternoon, Apple banned Parler from its App Store after the platform failed to introduce a moderation plan to protect public safety. On Friday, Apple gave Parler 24 hours to mitigate “planning for illegal and dangerous activities” taking place in its service or it will be expelled, BuzzFeed News reported for the first time. Google also suspended Parler from its Google Play app store.
Here’s Amazon’s full letter to Parler.
Dear Amy,
Thank you for talking to us earlier today.
As we discussed on the phone yesterday and this morning, we remain concerned about repeated violations of our terms of service. In the past few weeks, we’ve reported 98 examples to Parler of posts that clearly encourage and incite violence. Here are some examples below those we sent earlier: [See images above.]
We recently saw a steady increase in this violent content on your site, which violates our terms. Of course, Parler does not have an effective process for complying with AWS terms of service. It also appears that Parler is still trying to determine his position on content moderation. You remove some violent content when contacted by us or others, but not always urgently. Recently, its CEO publicly stated that he does not “feel responsible for any of this, and neither should the platform.” This morning, you shared that you have a plan to moderate violent content more proactively, but plan to do it manually with volunteers. In our opinion, this nascent plan to use volunteers to promptly identify and remove dangerous content will not work due to the growing number of violent posts. This is further demonstrated by the fact that you have not yet removed much of the content we send. Given the unfortunate events that took place last week in Washington, DC, there is a serious risk that this type of content will further incite violence.
AWS provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum and we continue to respect Parler’s right to determine for himself what content he will allow on his website. However, we are unable to provide services to a customer who is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others. As Parler is unable to comply with our terms of service and represents a very real risk to public security, we plan to suspend Parler’s account starting Sunday, January 10, at 11:59 PM PST. We will ensure that all of your data is preserved so that you can migrate to your own servers and we will work with you in the best possible way to assist you with the migration.
– AWS Trust and Security Team