“I believe AWS’s decision to shut down Parler’s service was based, not on concerns expressed about Parler’s compliance with the AWS agreement, but partly on a desire to deny President Trump a platform on any major social media service “said John Matze. Parler emphasizes that it does little to limit what its users can post and has become popular with conservatives.
Key context: After his suspension on Twitter, Trump was considering other options and other conservatives, irritated by Twitter or expelled from the site, put Parler as the new destination. If the company had managed to get Trump to sign up, that would have been a huge advantage for a website that has long been a niche platform.
At the hearing: Groesbeck also categorically denied that Parler was involved in the attack on the Capitol last week and asked Judge Barbara J. Rothstein to order Amazon Web Services to reinstate its web hosting service.
“AWS claims, without evidence, that Parler was used to incite the riots,” said Groesbeck. “There is no evidence other than some anecdotal references from the press that Parler was involved in the January 6 riots.”
“Millions of Americans have had their voices silenced by AWS,” said Groesbeck.
How we got here: On Friday night, Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account, claiming he could incite more violence. Conservatives outraged at what they called censorship of the president abandoned the platform for alternatives like Parler, which have less restraint.
Parler, who had 15 million users at the time it was cut off on Sunday, was adding about 1 million new users each day, lawyers said at the hearing.
Over the weekend, Apple and Google removed Parler from their app stores for failing to adopt a content moderation plan to deal with violent threats. Amazon, which hosted the site, also cut its web hosting services for Parler just before midnight on Sunday due to the social media platform’s failure to comply with its terms of service.
Parler sued Amazon on Monday, alleging antitrust and breach of contracts. Groesbeck said he intended to file the complaint and a request for a temporary injunction on Sunday, but had technical difficulties with the federal court’s electronic filing system.
Reply from Amazon: Ambika Doran, a lawyer for Amazon, said the AWS contract allows the company to temporarily suspend or close accounts that do not comply with the terms of service. AWS provided Parler with about 100 examples of posts that violate terms of service, she said, and the social media service had no plans to effectively moderate content that incites violence.
“Amazon had every right to do what it did under the contract,” she said.
Amazon executives were concerned about continuing to host the site because of the increase in violent posts after the January 6 riots, Doran said. With the company adding so many users, Parler could have 25 million users by the day he takes office on January 20, she said. Despite the increase in the number of users, the company was slow to eliminate threats of rape, murder and torture from its platform, said Doran.
“There is no one at Parler who says they have an effective moderation plan,” she said.
She also contested Parler’s claims that AWS favored Twitter. Twitter’s main live feed is not hosted by AWS, she said.
What is the next: Rothstein did not indicate how she would rule, but said that she would issue a decision quickly.