It is necessary to ask whether Big Tech perceives that it is essentially validating all the arguments presented for antitrust intervention. Too bad it took so long to get to that point, but perhaps Parler’s process will provide the necessary catalyst.
And it certainly looks like Parler has a very good case here:
Parler, the alternative social media platform favored by the far right, sued Amazon on Monday in response to the deplatform, alleging antitrust breach, breach of contract and interference in the company’s commercial relations with users.
The complaint asks a federal court for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Amazon (AMZN) and calls the Amazon Web Services decision a “death blow” to Parler.
“Without AWS, Parler is finished because there is no way to go online,” said the complaint. “And a delay in granting this TRO for at least a day may also sound Parler’s death sentence as President Trump and others move to other platforms.”
Parler’s lawsuit argues that Amazon illegally tried to restrict competition by eliminating a player from the market.
Second look at conservatives in net neutrality? To answer that question, be sure to read Jazz’s post yesterday about the porters’ attack on Parler. Now it involves almost all Big Tech organizations, except Facebook, and that’s just because Facebook doesn’t have gatekeeper status for Parler. Both Google and Apple required moderation of content at Parler to host their app in their stores, and that was before Amazon closed them for the same problem.
In any other industry and any other context, this would be a lot like … monopolistic behavior and collusion. this we must immediate government action in relation to the Sherman Act, either at the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice, to determine whether such a collusion occurred. Most importantly, it demonstrates the dangers of consolidation in any sector, but perhaps especially in the technology and communications sectors.
ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner warns that these decisions have consequences, even if they are popular at the moment. This goes beyond the purge of Twitter involving Donald Trump and his supporters, which the ACLU had already criticized, as it goes deeper into issues of freedom of expression and other civil liberties:
Here is what ACLU attorney Ben Wizner told me in full about Parler’s deactivation because of AWS. pic.twitter.com/aIELab0kze
– Davey Alba (@daveyalba) January 11, 2021
Take note of the reference to “neutrality principles”. The Trump administration dispensed with net neutrality regulations early in its term, which conservatives applauded. If they are recalculated to provide some kind of brake on this type of degradation – or even sold as such by the Biden government – conservatives may end up rooting for its reimposition.
The real problem here is the laissez-faire approach to consolidation in recent decades and the reluctance to understand what it means in political power. I discussed for years about this blind spot on the right and what it would mean for access and influence. Parler is the canary in the coal mine – and a harbinger of things to come, unless we start being assertive in consolidation and start dismantling megacorporations.