Overnight, the social media site Parler was taken down. The site has been accused of promoting violence during last weeks takeover of the Capitol by Trump supporters.
In a letter from Amazon Web Services to Parler obtained by Buzzfeed:
Recently, we’ve seen a steady increase in this violent content on your website, all of which violates our terms. It’s clear that Parler does not have an effective process to comply with the AWS terms of service. It also seems that Parler is still trying to determine its position on content moderation. You remove some violent content when contacted by us or others, but not always with urgency. Your CEO recently stated publicly that he doesn’t “feel responsible for any of this, and neither should the platform.” This morning, you shared that you have a plan to more proactively moderate violent content, but plan to do so manually with volunteers. It’s our view that this nascent plan to use volunteers to promptly identify and remove dangerous content will not work in light of the rapidly growing number of violent posts. This is further demonstrated by the fact that you still have not taken down much of the content that we’ve sent you. Given the unfortunate events that transpired this past week in Washington, D.C., there is serious risk that this type of content will further incite violence.
First, Apple and Google suspended Parler from their App stores, but then Amazon Web Services, which hosted the site, took it down.
The Hill writes:
AWS said in a statement that Parler, which has frequently billed itself as a free-speech alternative for people suspended from Twitter, had violated its terms of service. The platform has come under fire in recent days over its alleged role in coordinating the deadly riots at the U.S. Capitol last week, with Apple and Google both removing its app from their stores.
The platform’s connection to last week’s violence had come under increasing scrutiny due to posts like those of pro-Trump attorney and conspiracy theorist Lin Wood, who reportedly used it to call for Vice President Pence’s execution.
John Matze, the founder and CEO of Parler, said in a statement the site would be down “longer than expected” because other cloud hosting companies don’t want to work with them.
“We will likely be down longer than expected,” Matze wrote. “This is not due to software restrictions — we have our software and everyone’s data ready to go. Rather it’s that Amazon’s, Google’s and Apple’s statements to the press about dropping our access has caused most of our other vendors to drop their support for us as well.”
