- Parler registered his domain with Epik, a company known for hosting other far-right sites, including Gab.
- Epik said in a statement released on Monday that, although Parler registered his domain with the company, the companies had not contacted each other.
- Parler denied allegations that it became a refuge for the far right, but threats related to the Capitol uprising have thrived on the platform.
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After Amazon Web Services (AWS) broke ties with Parler, citing the story of the social media platform hosting extreme right-wing extremist content that contributed to Wednesday’s US Capitol riot, the social platform appears to have found a new home.
Parler registered his domain with Epik, a company known for hosting other far-right sites, including Gab, according to publicly available WHOIS information. The news was first reported by James Iles, a writer whose blog focuses on domain names.
In a statement released on Monday, Epik said the company “had no contact or discussion with Parler in any way” before the site registered its domain with them. Epik added that “so far, no communications have been received by them for discussion of future service provision.”
The statement went on to criticize social media companies for their growing moderation. “The impressive size of Twitter and Facebook alone made real change or accountability almost impossible, as the political interests and goals of its own executives end up creating an undeniable double standard for policing and enforcement,” writes the vice president. Senior Epik President Robert Davis, showing up to refer to the platforms’ decisions to ban President Donald Trump.
Read More: Within Parler’s rapid and mysterious rise, Twitter’s ‘free speech’ alternative, which created a platform for conservatives by burning the Silicon Valley script
Parler sued Amazon for stopping its service, alleging antitrust violations and claiming that the ban was politically motivated. Without AWS to host the platform, Parler went offline on Monday. As of Tuesday, the site remains unavailable. Before AWS left Parler on Sunday, the app version of the platform was removed by Google and Apple app stores.
Parler denied claims that his platform hosted extremist content, but an Insider investigation found that the platform had appealed to the far right since its early days. Insider also found that violent threats related to the Capitol insurrection spread without mitigation in Parler before, during and after the deadly incident.
Parler’s finding “refuge” with Epik, as Vice reported, comes after the company’s history of hosting far-right content. Gab, a far-right alternative to Facebook, and Bitchute, a far-right alternative to YouTube, operate with Epik. The company previously hosted 8chan, now 8kun, the marginal message board that has been popular with violent extremists. Infowars, the website of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, is also registered on Epik.
The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote in 2019 that Epik was “monopolizing the market for sites where hate speech is thriving,” and Epik CEO Rob Monster defended the rights of neo-Nazis to meet online, HuffPost reported in 2018 .
This article has been updated to include that Infowars is registered with Epik.