Parler policy director Amy Peikoff joins Fox and Friends Weekend.
Parler is likely to be offline for “a while” Sunday night, due to Amazon Web Services’ decision to suspend the emerging social media platform after Wednesday’s US Capitol riot, executives said on Sunday.
“We are clearly being chosen,” policy director Amy Peikoff told Fox & Friends Weekend the day after Apple suspended Parler from its App Store, even when it reached No. 1 in the free apps section earlier in the day. .
“I believe we were treated unfairly,” she added.
CEO John Matze told Sunday Morning Futures that the site will try to “get back online as soon as possible” after writing on the platform that the site could be down for up to a week.
Google suspended Parler from its app store on Friday due to a failure to moderate “shocking content” posted by users related to the violent siege of Capitol Hill last week.
| Ticker | Safety | Last | change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAPL | APPLE INC. | 132.05 | +1.13 | + 0.86% |
| GOOGL | ALPHABET INC. | 1,797.83 | +23.49 | + 1.32% |
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 3,182.70 | +20.54 | + 0.65% |
“We are not necessarily being chosen by these technology companies, but certainly by the people who have been pushing them and, in fact, we think that we are being configured in various ways because, when looking at some of the content, these are accounts that were created a long time ago. two days and have few pieces of content and some of them are parodies of what you would think a source of right-wing violence would be, ”said Peikoff on Sunday.
She added that she is “very surprised about Apple about this, because they have a reputation for respecting privacy”.
Parler is facing criticism over Wednesday’s riot that saw supporters of President Trump storming the U.S. Capitol, attacking the police, vandalizing the building and stealing items from inside.
Screenshots taken from Parler and shared on other social media platforms appear to show Parler users openly discussing plans for violence at the rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol, including bringing in weapons and imagining how they would use them against their political opponents.
An Apple spokesman said in a statement to FOX Business: “We always support a variety of views being represented on the App Store, but there is no place on our platform for threats of violence and illegal activities.”
“Parler has not taken adequate measures to deal with the proliferation of these threats to people’s security,” the statement continued. “We suspended Parler from the App Store until they resolve these issues.”
The App Reviews Board sent a letter to Parler executives explaining that their app would be “removed from the App Store until we receive an update that complies with the App Store Review Guidelines and you have demonstrated your ability to moderate and filter effectively the dangerous and harmful content in your service. “
A Google spokesman confirmed in a statement to Fox News that its “longstanding policies” require applications with user-generated content to take steps to remove certain obscene content – including posts that incite violence. The developers agree to these terms.
GOOGLE SUSPENDS THE PLAY STORE PARLER APPLICATION IN THE FAILURE TO MODERATE OLD CONTENT
“We are aware of ongoing posts on the Parler app that seek to incite continuing violence in the United States,” wrote a Google spokesman in a statement. “In light of this continuing and urgent threat to public safety, we are suspending the app’s listings on the Play Store until it resolves these issues.”
Matze told Sunday Morning Futures that what is happening is “extremely scary” and that it seems that Big Tech’s moves are an effort to “stifle free speech and competition in the market”.
Data analyst Appfigures estimated that on Saturday, Parler downloads would surpass 1.5 million on the App Store, driven largely by pro-Trump conservatives who left Twitter in protest.
On Friday, Appfigures estimated that “downloads have grown to more than 340,000, from about 12,000 the previous week” based on company data. The total number of downloads “between Wednesday and Friday was estimated at more than 450,000 new downloads.”
| Ticker | Safety | Last | change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TWTR | TWITTER INC. | 51.48 | -0.85 | -1.62% |
Parler’s suspension by Apple and Google comes after Twitter’s decision to ban President Trump’s personal account on Friday after a crowd of his followers invaded the United States Capitol, resulting in several deaths. The technology company accused Trump of inciting violence.
Amazon will also suspend Parler from its Amazon Web Services (AWS) unit in a move that takes the site offline, unless it finds another hosting service.
TWITTER ACTIONS LOWER ALMOST 4% IN TRADING HOURS FOLLOWING TRUMP PROHIBITION
Amazon says the move was made for violating AWS terms of service by not effectively handling a steady increase in violent content, according to an email from an AWS trust and security team to Parler, seen by Reuters .
AWS plans to suspend Parler’s account starting Sunday at 11:59 pm PST, according to the email.
An Amazon spokesman confirmed that the letter was authentic.
“If Amazon really does this, then we will be out,” said Peikoff on Sunday, explaining that “we cannot be operational without servers”.
When asked if there are alternative servers that Parler can change to, Peikoff said: “We are working and struggling to do this, but it is not something you can do very quickly, so there is a good chance that we will be inactive for a while. “
“We will try our best to switch to a new supplier now, as we have many competing for our business, however, Amazon, Google and Apple did this on purpose in a coordinated effort, knowing that our options would be limited and knowing that this would cause the greater damage once President Trump was banned from technology companies, ”added Matze.
Amazon Web Services acceptable use policy prevents customers from using their services for “illegal, harmful or offensive” content. An Amazon representative declined to comment.
“We don’t want this content on our platform, of course,” said Peikoff. “It is not only illegal, but it is contrary to our mission because we are trying to provide a non-party square where people from different points of view can have productive discussions and the force and threats of force interrupt these discussions, in fact they stop thinking like that it is the opposite of what we want. ”
“We want people to think. We want them to think for themselves ”, he stressed.
At the same time, we strongly believe that Orwell’s ‘Nineteen eighty-four’ is a dystopian novel, ”she continued. “It is not an instruction manual, and by that I mean that, in a free country, innocent people, people about whom you have no particular suspicion, should not be subjected to mass surveillance 24 hours a day, 7 days a day. week and is not consistent with the Fourth Amendment. This one.”
DISCOVER FOX BUSINESS ON THE MOVE BY CLICKING HERE
Peikoff then explained what she called “a crucial issue”.
“We want all content that is posted online, each piece to be scanned in search of ‘questionable content’, as they call it, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and also removed without due process if it is signaled by an algorithm because it seems to be the standard that Parler is hearing that we should follow, ”she said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT FOX BUSINESS
Fox Business’ Audrey Conklin, James Leggate and Brittany De Lea of Fox News contributed to this report.