The social media platform Parler dropped a federal lawsuit alleging that Amazon conspired with Twitter to take a rival offline – but in its place, the platform filed a new state lawsuit alleging that Amazon deliberately undermined Parler’s assessment .
Parler’s new lawsuit (PDF) – filed in King County, Washington, where Amazon is headquartered – mainly argues that Parler is no worse than the competition and that Amazon defamed and devalued him when AWS discontinued the service.
The platform has been involved in legal battles with Amazon since January, when Amazon hacked Parler’s AWS host in the wake of the January 6 uprising on the United States Capitol. Parler went offline shortly thereafter and remained so until mid-February.
How did we get here?
Parler was launched in 2018 as a “free speech” alternative for major social media companies like Twitter and Facebook. In late 2020, it gained a significant following among conservative and right-wing users – including extreme right-wing extremists who flocked to Parler when other platforms began to limit the spread of QAnon content.
Then it all hit the fan in the wake of the January 6 events at the United States Capitol. Many of the participants in that crowd broadcast live or posted photos of the Capitol on social media services, including Parler. Within days, both Google and Apple banned Parler from their mobile app stores, and AWS did the same shortly thereafter.
Parler immediately filed a lawsuit against Amazon in a federal court in Washington State, asking the court to compel Amazon to reinstate its hosting. The judge assigned to the case rejected Parler’s request, concluding that his actions against Amazon were, at best, weak.
Amazon, in its legal response to the Parler lawsuit, effectively filed receipts showing more than 100 instances of violent content that alerted Parler before the January 6 attack.
“If there is any violation [of contract], is Parler’s demonstrated failure and inability to identify and remove such content, “Amazon wrote in its document at the time.” Forcing AWS to host content that plans, encourages and incites violence would be unprecedented. “
The way back to evaluation
Parler’s new lawsuit is not impressed by Amazon’s claims about the old lawsuit.
“Since its inception, Parler has carefully policed any content on his platform that incites violence,” says the company. “To be sure, AWS sent problematic content to Parler from time to time, content that Parler investigated and resolved immediately.” In addition, Parler argues, everyone else, including Amazon through its third-party retail market, sell content that incites violence.
And if you get to the point, Parler argues, the real problem is money. “Just before all this happened, Parler was about to seek funding and was valued at a billion dollars – something that AWS also knew about,” says the lawsuit. By launching Parler from AWS hosting, the argument goes, Amazon harmed Parler and destroyed that assessment through “deceptive and unfair business practices”, defamation and breach of contract.
Parler appears to be at a critical juncture in his attempt to get online again, and the process appears designed to support him in that effort. The site is back online – more or less – and under new leadership since the board sacked founder and former CEO John Matze a month ago.
That board is now under the control of investor Rebekah Mercer, who appears to be trying to bring the company back as an important platform. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report last year that Mercer is Parler’s biggest investor. The Mercer family, including Rebekah, are prominent supporters of several conservative causes, websites and politicians, including former United States President Donald Trump.