The Parler logo displayed on a smartphone with the Google, Amazon and Apple logos displayed on the PC screen in the background. Google, Apple and Amazon suspended the social networking application Parler.
Gonchar Pavlo | LightRocket | Getty Images
Amazon defended its decision to remove Parler from its web hosting service in response to a lawsuit filed by the social media app earlier this week.
In lawsuits on Tuesday, Amazon said it had flagged dozens of pieces of violent content to the social media app starting in November. The company argued that Parler violated his contract with Amazon’s cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS), when it failed to remove the content and that AWS suspended Parler’s account “as a last resort”.
“This case is not about suppressing speech or stifling points of view,” wrote Amazon in its response to Parler. “This is not a conspiracy to restrict trade. Instead, this case is about Parler’s demonstrated unwillingness and inability to remove from AWS content servers that threatens public security, for example, by inciting and planning rape. , torture and murder of public identified public officials and citizens “.
Amazon unplugged the Parler plug, a social media app popular with Trump supporters last week after the deadly uproar on the United States Capitol. Parler filed a lawsuit against Amazon on Monday, accusing Amazon of violating its contract and violating antitrust laws. Parler also asked the court for a temporary restraining order to force AWS to reinstate his account.
In its response to Parler’s lawsuit, Amazon argued that restoring the web service to Parler would likely harm the public, overcoming “any speculative damage that Parler claims it could suffer” because its site is offline.
It also rejected Parler’s claim that AWS violated antitrust laws by denying its service. He cited section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a law favored by Silicon Valley and, increasingly, under attack by lawmakers, which prevents technology companies from being held responsible for what users post on their platforms.
Amazon said it began reporting content that violated its terms of service to Parler on November 17 last year. In the next seven weeks, Amazon said it reported more than 100 additional pieces of content that advocate violence.
Amazon has included some examples of this content in archived displays along with its lawsuit, which include death threats against members of Congress, executives from technology companies like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, as well as the US Capitol Police, among other groups. In some Parler posts, users made threats to “set fire to Amazon delivery trucks” and Apple stores, as well as “seize Amazon servers”.
“We must gather peacefully outside all these tech tyranny houses and businesses, then protest peacefully and loot and burn them peacefully,” said a post by Parler, according to the court case.
Amazon said the content encouraging violence grew after the violence on the U.S. Capitol by some Trump supporters on Wednesday, which left five dead. After the riot, politicians and the public called on social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube from Google to more closely moderate their platforms to prevent incitement to violence.
Amazon made calls to Parler executives after the riots, where it raised concerns about Parler’s ineffective moderation strategies, which included relying on volunteers to report the content. Parler CEO John Matze indicated in one of those calls that the site had an accumulation of 26,000 reports of content that violated its policies and were still on the site, the suit says.
“Parler’s failures left AWS little choice but to suspend Parler’s account,” said Amazon in the process.
Parler did not respond to a request for comment. Amazon said earlier that “there was no merit” in the claims filed in Parler’s lawsuit.