Parler went offline after Amazon fulfilled its promise to remove the controversial social media site from its AWS web hosting services. Amazon hung up at 11:59 pm Pacific time, saying that Parler was not adequately moderating its content and that the violence required on the site represented “a very real risk to public security.”
Parler CEO John Matze announced on his website Monday morning that the service was likely to be interrupted for a while and he called Parler his “last position on the internet”.
“I wanted to send an update to everyone at Parler. We will probably be longer than expected, ”wrote Matze on Monday morning. “This is not due to software restrictions – we have our software and everyone’s data ready for use. Instead, statements from Amazon, Google and Apple to the press about the withdrawal of our access caused most of our other suppliers to stop supporting us as well. ”
Matze, who calls himself a libertarian, said on Sunday that absolutely no one wants to do business with him and that big tech companies like Apple and Amazon are conspiring to “stifle free speech” by starting Parler off their platforms.
“All suppliers, from text messaging services to email providers and our lawyers, dismissed us on the same day,” Marze complained to Maria Bartiromo on Sunday during a telephone interview on Fox News.
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Parler soared to the top of Apple’s App Store on Saturday after President Donald Trump was permanently banned from Twitter, prompting his neo-fascist followers to look for an alternative social media site. Trump made a speech on January 6 that incited a riot at the United States Capitol, leaving five people dead, and Twitter said it banned Trump to reduce the likelihood of the president inspiring more violence.
But Parler faced further pressure after the Capitol coup attempt to crack down on extremist calls for violence, something Apple gave the service 24 hours before being suspended on Sunday.
“Well, like I said, they claim that we were somehow responsible for, you know, what they call the 6th insurrection, which, you know, we never allow violence … we never allow any of those things on our platforms, ”said Matze.
You know, we never allow any of that on our platform. And we don’t even have a way to coordinate an event on our platform, so, somehow, they want to make us responsible. “
To be clear, Apple never blamed Parler for the January 6 violence. The company, like dozens of others, has been awakened by the fact that allowing pro-fascist speech on its platforms can literally inspire a coup and bring down overthrown US government leaders like President-elect Joe Biden.
Bartiromo went on a strange tangent in Trump’s attempt to legislatively destroy Section 230, something Matze previously opposed. But Matze now says he thinks Section 230 should be abolished, a strange position for someone tasked with moderating a website where he could potentially be held criminally liable without Section 230.
Matze also mentioned Amazon’s threats to open Parler on Sunday, complaining that it didn’t have enough time to find alternative accommodation.
“Amazon is the largest cloud storage provider in the world and we use them to host our servers, you know, hundreds of them, hundreds of servers. And they gave it to us … basically they said you have 24 hours to get all your data and find new servers, “said Matze to Bartiromo.
“So, you know, where are you going to find 300 to 500 servers in the 24-hour window and how can you send all the data from everyone to them in a 24-hour period? It is an impossible feat. You know, we will do our best to get back online as soon as possible. But, you know, that is … there are some things that are almost basically impossible. “
What kind of content will people miss with Parler offline? A video that was popular before the site went offline was made by a QAnon supporter who put together Trump’s old catchphrases to make the whole subtext an explicitly neo-fascist text.
“January 20 will be remembered as the day that the people became ruler of this nation again,” the video shows Trump saying, with flashy graphics with things like “the time has come”.
Interestingly, this is a real thing that Trump said, but it has been since its first infamous inauguration on January 20, 2017. The video ended with a United States chart dated January 20, 2021 and QAnon’s WWG1WGA slogan, that remains for Where We Go One, We Go Everything.
There was also content on Parler like this message from Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right troll who was kicked out of Twitter in 2016 for harassment.
Parler is partly owned by Fox News personality Dan Bongino, a fact that was never mentioned during Matze’s interview with Bartiromo on Sunday. Parler also received money from Rebekah Mercer, a far-right financier of pro-Trump radicalism. Mercer is also the daughter of Robert Mercer, co-founder of Cambridge Analytica.
Although Matze’s company is clearly fighting for its life, Parler is probably also struggling with maladministration. See, the Matze is not the brightest lamp, as they say. When Matze described how he was feeling on Sunday, he summed it up very well.
“It’s not just scary, it’s extremely scary,” said Matze.
Correction: This article originally included a typo in the QAnon slogan. The real slogan is “Where are we going, we are all going”, not “Where are we going, we are doing everything”, a slogan that sounds a lot more fun if we are honest. Gizmodo regrets the mistake.