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Some Amazon employees are calling on the company to be the next technology giant to eliminate the controversial social media platform Parler.
The Amazon Employees for Climate Justice group posted a tweet overnight demanding that “Amazon deny Parler services until it removes messages that incite violence, including in the presidential inauguration.”
“We cannot be accomplices in more bloodshed and violent attacks on democracy,” they wrote.
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AWS’s acceptable use policy prevents customers from using its services for “illegal, harmful or offensive” content. Amazon representatives did not immediately respond to Fox Business questions.
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.
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Google has already suspended the Parler app from its Play Store, and Apple has also threatened to remove the Parler app from the App Store, unless the platform improves its moderation, Fox News reported.
“We are aware of ongoing posts on the Parler app that seek to incite continuing violence in the United States,” a Google spokesman told Fox News.
In a series of posts on Parler, its CEO, John Matze, criticized Google for the removal and Apple for also threatening to ban its application. He claimed that the organization of violence on Capitol occurred in Facebook groups, rather than Parler.
“Most people in Parler are non-violent people who want to share their opinions, photos of food and more,” he wrote.
A Parler representative did not immediately respond to a question from Fox Business.
Trump supporters gesture to the US Capitol Police in the corridor outside the Senate chamber at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, January 6, 2021. (Photo by AP / Manuel Balce Ceneta)
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The Google Play Store ban does not affect users who have already downloaded the app. And Parler is also available on the web. An AWS ban could have much more significant impacts on the company.
Amazon Web Services is a giant of cloud computing. It provides hosting, security and other services to millions of customers. During the first nine months of 2020, Amazon’s subsidiary earned more than $ 32.6 billion.
There is precedent for Amazon to hack an AWS client instead of hosted content. In 2010, the company stopped working with WikiLeaks, noting that the organization did not own the rights to the content on its website and that these unedited documents would put “innocent people at risk”.
“We have been running AWS for over four years and have hundreds of thousands of customers storing all kinds of data on AWS,” said Amazon in a written statement at the time. “Some of this data is controversial, and that is perfectly normal. But when companies or individuals try to protect and store large amounts of data that are not rightfully theirs and publish it without ensuring that it does not harm others, it is a violation of our terms of service and people need to operate elsewhere. “
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But the company also resisted calls from employees to stop working with certain customers for ethical reasons. In 2019, some Amazon employees demanded that AWS stop providing cloud computing services to Palantir because of the work Palantir does for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“The world is watching the abuses in ICE concentration camps unfold,” wrote Amazon employees in a letter, by Business Insider. “We know that our company must and can do better.”
Amazon apparently refused to meet employee demand. AWS still lists Palantir as a “partner” on its website.