When you wake up of the Capitol riots two weeks ago, several large technology companies supported Parler, a Twitter-like social network that Donald Trump supporters have increasingly favored since its launch in 2018. Apple and Google withdrew the Parler app of their digital stores, and Amazon Web Services reduced the platform’s hosting services. After more than a week offline, the site is now backed up in part, in the form of a landing page that promises a full return. To get this far, Parler has hired DDoS-Guard, a Russian digital infrastructure company, to defend it against the endless mess of attacks that virtually every site faces online, particularly those as controversial as Parler. .
DDoS-Guard told WIRED that it only provides defense against denial of service attacks and does not host the Parler site. But even this level of support requires access to all traffic flowing through Parler, so it can “eliminate” malicious traffic aimed at overwhelming the site. Given the Russian government’s active efforts to isolate the country’s Internet and gain access to all data, Parler could expose its users to Russian surveillance if one day the site is completely relaunched with DDoS-Guard.
“Now seems like the right time to remind everyone, both lovers and haters, why we started this platform,” Parler’s home page currently proclaims. “We believe that privacy is paramount and that freedom of speech is paramount … We will resolve any challenges we face and plan to welcome them soon.”
Parler’s chief operating officer Jeffrey Wernick said The New York Times Tuesday that the social network would prefer U.S.-based providers and is working to find them. The platform registered its domain through Seattle-based Epik. But while Parler has been shunned by the big names in the U.S. tech industry, it aims to have more than 12 million users, making the platform too big for most small hosts. Therefore, their domestic options are scarce.
By adopting DDoS-Guard, even as a breakpoint, Parler joins a growing list of far-right sites like 8kun (formerly 8chan) and the Daily Stormer that U.S. infrastructure companies have left offline, only to see companies from countries with limited internet freedom. as DDoS-Guard: allow their re-emergence.
“At this time, Parler.com does not violate either our acceptable use policy or applicable U.S. law to the best of our knowledge,” DDoS-Guard said in a statement to WIRED. “DDoS-Guard maintains customer data responsibly without disclosing it to third parties. In addition, the provider only stores the information necessary for the service and provided explicitly by customers. “
But Russia has passed laws forcing technology companies to comply with government requests and has deployed physical network infrastructures to control from the IP addresses of web users and communications to location data. The use of Russian infrastructure services could expose users of a site to the country’s surveillance schemes, says Alp Toker, director of the non-partisan connectivity monitoring group NetBlocks. Most posts on Parler are required to be public, but the platform also offers a direct messaging feature and numerous types of “verified” accounts, including red badges for anyone who posts an image of their government ID card. . All this information, as well as the detailed data of the user’s activity and the user’s IP addresses, would potentially be exposed in the Kremlin if Parler returns with these same functions while the data is routed through Russian servers.
No matter where Parler finally gets to, he seems likely to find a home somewhere. Decentralized Internet design helps ensure connectivity, but also hinders the silence of people or platforms. Even the repressive governments of countries like Iran and China have struggled with the logistics of fully controlling a regional internet.