On Saturday, Amazon removed the Parler social media platform from its web hosting servers. Parler, a conservative-favored social network, is being targeted after the U.S. Capitol rebellion on Wednesday and in the wake of President Donald Trump’s migration to the platform after being banned by social media giants Twitter and Facebook.
#SMASH Amazon suspended #Parlerweb services account from taking the platform offline until it finds a new host. The news came after Apple and Google removed the app from their stores. #Application store #Amazon #Twitter
– Eric Wasserman? “WASS” (@ EricWasserman1) January 10, 2021
Parler will need to find another hosting service or the platform could be offline as early as Sunday.
According to an email obtained by BuzzFeed, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Trust and Security team told Parler policy director Amy Peikoff that calls for violence against Parler violated its terms of service. Amazon added, “This morning, you shared that you have a plan to moderate violent content more proactively, but you plan to do it manually with volunteers. In our opinion, this nascent plan to use volunteers to promptly identify and remove dangerous content does not will work in light of the growing number of violent messages.
The email continued: “Recently, we have seen a steady increase in this violent content on your website, which violates our terms. It is clear that Parler does not have an effective process for complying with AWS terms of service,” The email says : “We are unable to provide services to a customer who is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against third parties. Since Parler cannot 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. “
Google removed Parler from its app store on Friday, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump created a Parler account, causing crowds of people around the world to migrate to Parler as well.
Apple had already given Parler 24 hours on Friday to “clean up” certain posts that they considered “incitement to violence” or would also be banned from its App Store. Apple did not specify which posts they were referring to and banned Parler on Saturday afternoon.
Parler CEO John Matze released an announcement on the platform to inform his users of the platform’s imminent shutdown. He said the forecast is that the site will be offline for at least a week and that the company “has prepared for events like this”. He said Parler will try to find a new hosting provider in the meantime.
