- Amazon will remove Parler from its web servers, leaving the controversial social network to fight for a new host.
- Technology giants, including Apple, Google and Amazon, have recently moved away from Parler, an app that has mainly attracted far-right conservatives with limited content moderation.
- Parler CEO John Matze said the site could be down for up to a week as “we rebuilt from scratch”.
- “It’s probably not the end for Parler,” a disinformation expert told Insider. “They just need to find another server space.”
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
Parler will be kicked out of Amazon’s servers on Monday morning, forcing the controversial social networking site to be unavailable for at least a few days. But experts say it is unlikely to be the end of the platform.
Technology giants, including Amazon, Apple and Google, have taken a series of actions against Parler since the U.S. Capitol insurrection by a crowd of supporters of President Donald Trump. While the shares are likely to lead to a decline in Parler’s popularity, experts say the app is not necessarily dead in the long run.
“It is realistic to expect Parler to find another provider to host his services like AWS,” said Max Aliapoulios, a PhD student in computer science at New York University with a focus on understanding and mitigating sociotechnical problems such as cybercrime and online extremism. Insider in an email.
Read more: Amazon is removing Parler from its web hosting service
For example, the 8kun message board and the social media platform Gab used Epik as a new host, noted Aliapoulios.
“That said, now the precedent has been set and Parler will likely always have an uphill battle to find a home to host them on the Internet,” he added.
Kathleen Carley, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University who studies disinformation, also agreed that it probably won’t be the end of the network, but the decision will likely take applications like Parler to the dark web and encrypted systems.
“It’s probably not the end for Parler,” wrote Carley in an email to Insider. “They just need to find another server space.”
Parler gained prominence for cultivating a far-right audience
A protester holds a Trump flag inside the U.S. Capitol building.
Win McNamee / Getty images
In the past few months, Parler has attracted a conservative far-right audience by presenting itself as a social network with minimal moderation of content. The network appeared to play a crucial role as a meeting place for many of the insurrectionists who finally invaded the Capitol on January 6 in a riot that left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer.
After Twitter banned Trump’s account on Friday, some conservative figures recently announced that they would be switching to the Parler app and encouraged others to do the same.
Now, the future is uncertain for the once popular social application. Although he may not be dead, Parler appears to be vitally supportive as he no longer appears in Apple’s app stores or Google Play and is now being kicked out of AWS servers. Amazon said it will shut down Parler at 11:59 pm Pacific time on Sunday.
Apple and Google said the app was not moderating enough. Parler users called for violence during the Washington coup attempt, according to Insider reporters Margaux MacColl and Kevin Shalvey.
Parler said the target was being unfair.
“This was an attack coordinated by the technology giants to eliminate competition in the market,” said Matze in a statement. “We were very successful too quickly. You can expect the war on competition and free speech to continue, but don’t exclude us.”
Plan to ‘rebuild from scratch’ can be a difficult task
Matze also said that Parler can go offline for up to a week while “rebuilding from scratch”. It is unclear what this would imply, or to what extent Parler was dependent on AWS for cloud and hosting services. BuzzFeed News first reported on Amazon’s decision to sever ties with Parler.
“Being pulled out of AWS is virtually unheard of; when people leave intentionally, planning takes months; execution can take years,” Corey Quinn, chief cloud economist at The Duckbill Group wrote on Twitter.
Quinn said it takes time to move all data from web servers, and other AWS offerings are not directly compatible with other servers. “Making what you build on AWS systems work elsewhere is super challenging,” he added.
Moving to a new provider usually takes months or years. Parler was given about 30 hours in advance, Quinn said.
The platform reported that it had about 4 million active users in November.
In addition to the problems of finding a new host, Parler may also face the challenge of actually running a profitable business.
Read more: Terrified Pelosi officials barricaded themselves in a conference room and huddled under a table while pro-Trump protesters ransacked the speaker’s office: Report
Aliapoulios noted that Parler had been planning to launch an influence network for months – “basically just a portal for advertisers and influencers to make money,” he added.
“I think they may have a hard time finding enough companies, who want to advertise on a website full of violent extremists, to offset the cost of their cloud provider account,” said Aliapoulios.
But in the long run, Parler may well survive because of his existing popularity. Aliapoulios noted that other controversial sites like 8kun and Gab still exist. In fact, Gab said he was seeing an increase in demand over the weekend, as other social media sites cracked down.