Parler has found a new hosting service after Amazon Web Services booted the social media website off their servers.
“Now seems like the right time to remind you all — both lovers and haters — why we started this platform,” CEO John Matze wrote. “We believe privacy is paramount and free speech essential, especially on social media. Our aim has always been to provide a nonpartisan public square where individuals can enjoy and exercise their rights to both. We will resolve any challenge before us and plan to welcome all of you back soon. We will not let civil discourse perish!”
Last week, Parler asked a federal court in Washington state to block Amazon’s decision, while maintaining that Amazon engaged in monopolistic practices by removing the platform. Twitter is also a major client of Amazon Web Services.
While it didn’t confirm Parler was seeking its services, web services company Epik in a statement last week blasted Big Tech companies’ “kneejerk reaction” of “simply deplatforming and terminating any relationship that on the surface looks problematic or controversial.” The statement noted that Epik is “not quick to abandon our administrative positions” as it attempted to contrast itself and Amazon.
In addition to Amazon’s decision, Google and Apple removed Parler from their respective app stores. Earlier on Jan. 17, Matze said there was no indication Amazon, Google, and Apple would pull their services. The companies did not remove Facebook, however, even though that platform was used to help organize the siege on the capitol building.
In the days up to the suspension, Matze told Fox News, “Amazon, as usual, [was] basically saying, ‘Oh, I never saw any material problems. There’s no issues.’ You know, they played it off very nonchalantly. And so we had still even, you know, on the 8th and the 9th, you know, we had no real indication that this was, you know, deadly serious.”
Parler for now just has a static page showing on its website, and expects to be back to normal by the end of the month.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice