{"id":70474,"date":"2021-01-12T02:03:56","date_gmt":"2021-01-12T02:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=70474"},"modified":"2021-01-12T02:03:56","modified_gmt":"2021-01-12T02:03:56","slug":"parler-sues-amazon-web-services-forced-offline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefastfashion.com\/?p=70474","title":{"rendered":"Parler sues Amazon Web Services after being forced offline"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parler sued Amazon\u2019s cloud-computing business Monday after the tech titan\u00a0forced the controversial social network to go dark.<\/p>\n

The 18-page complaint filed in Seattle federal court claims Amazon Web Services\u2019 decision to stop hosting Parler was a politically motivated scheme to protect Twitter \u2014 another Amazon client \u2014 from competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cAWS\u2019s decision to effectively terminate Parler\u2019s account is apparently motivated by political animus,\u201d the lawsuit reads. \u201cIt is also apparently designed to reduce competition in the microblogging services market to the benefit of Twitter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The suit came hours after AWS cut off Parler\u2019s access to its servers because of its failure to police the threats of violence that proliferated on the platform ahead of last week\u2019s pro-President Trump siege on the US Capitol.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s supporters and other right-wing activists had flocked to Parler since the November presidential election that Trump has constantly tried to undermine with baseless fraud claims.<\/p>\n

That growth started to accelerate after Twitter banned Trump from the site Friday over concerns that his posts could incite further violence, Parler\u2019s complaint says, noting that there was speculation that Trump himself would join Parler.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit suggests Amazon Web Services pulled the plug on Parler to save Twitter from a growing competitor weeks after the two companies\u00a0signed a deal\u00a0that would see AWS support the delivery of \u201cmillions of daily tweets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parler contends the decision was unfair given that violent threats also appeared on Twitter over the past week to the extent that the phrase \u201cHang Mike Pence\u201d became a trending topic, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cBy silencing Parler, AWS silences the millions of Parler users who do not feel their free speech is protected by Twitter or other social media apps,\u201d the suit reads. \u201cWhat is more, by pulling the plug on Parler but leaving Twitter alone despite identical conduct by users on both sites, AWS reveals that its expressed reasons for suspending Parler\u2019s account are but pretext.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amazon said the problem is that Parler has been \u201cunable or unwilling to promptly identify and remove this content, which is a violation of our terms of service.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made our concerns known to Parler over a number of weeks and during that time we saw a significant increase in this type of dangerous content, not a decrease, which led to our suspension of their services Sunday evening,\u201d an AWS spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Twitter declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Adv<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n