Parler is suing Amazon…again

UPDATE 3/5/2021 11:21 AM ET: Amazon provided KnowTechie with this statement:

“There is no merit to these claims. AWS provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum, and we respect Parler’s right to determine for itself what content it will allow. However, as shown by the evidence in Parler’s federal lawsuit,it was clear that there was significant content on Parler that encouraged and incited violence against others, which is a violation of our terms of service. Further, Parler was unable or unwilling to promptly identify and remove this content, which coupled with an increase in this type of dangerous violent content, led to our suspension of their services“

The original story follows below.

Parler, every right-winger’s favorite social media platform, is suing Amazon again. The company claims Amazon is trying to destroy its business after the storming of the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6. According to Reuters, the lawsuit mainly focuses on anticompetitive conduct.

Shortly after the January 6 insurrection, Parler was booted from Amazon’s web hosting services, basically shutting the site down. The claim was that Parler wasn’t doing a very good job of moderating violent content on its website. This is also the reason why Apple and Google parted ways from the app.

Naturally, Parler took Amazon to court in hopes a judge would order the company to resume its services. Unfortunately for them, the judge refused to order Amazon to turn the service back on.

“When companies are this big, it’s easy to be a bully,” Parler said, calling itself “a victim of Amazon’s efforts to destroy an up-and-coming technology company through deceptive, defamatory, anticompetitive, and bad faith conduct.”

The new lawsuit claims Amazon didn’t stick to the terms of its contract with Parler. The suit even goes as far as accusing Amazon of shutting down the service to benefit Twitter, a new client Amazon recently signed up for its web hosting services.

Parler claims Amazon has cost the app tens of millions of users and hundreds of millions of dollars of annual ad revenue. Amazon says these new claims have no merit and that it “provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum.”

After a two-month hiatus, the social platform is back online, after firing its CEO from the board. The company now has a new web hosting provider.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Parler has somehow managed to get itself back online
• Parler’s CEO, John Matze, has been booted by the company’s board
• Parler is (kinda) back thanks to a Russian tech company
• Parler’s CEO says the “conservative” social app may never come back

Kevin Raposo

Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com or find him on Mastodon or Post.