Amazon is asking a federal judge to keep Parler offline, saying the conservative media site set aside appeals from Amazon’s web services division for Parler to monitor its violent content before and after Capitol insurrection.
The technology company’s legal appeal on Tuesday came in response Parler’s lawsuit claiming an antitrust violation and breach of contract after Amazon suspended Parler’s account, effectively banishing him from the Internet.
Amazon Web Services kicked off Parler from its cloud services shortly after midnight, Pacific time Monday, with the site inaccessible online from 4:30 a.m. Amazon said it dropped Parler because it did not trust the site’s ability to monitor the content of its platform by promoting or inciting violence.
“This case is not about suppressing speech or stifling views,” Amazon lawyers said in a lawsuit. “Instead, this case is about Parler’s demonstrated willingness and inability to remove Amazon Web Services (‘AWS’) content that threatens public security, such as inciting and planning rape, torture, and murder of designated civil servants and private citizens “.
Parler’s refusal to moderate the content led to a “steady increase” in violent content on the web, in breach of Amazon’s terms of service, according to AWS.
“First, Amazon has to think it has a strong case here that would be a good precedent for them in the future. And second, Amazon wants the wider public (or at least the wider business community) to see his answer here, ”said Max Kornblith, co-founder and head of growth at FairShake, a company that helps consumers resolve disputes with service providers through the arbitration process.
He noted that the deal with Amazon’s standard customer would probably have allowed them to withdraw the lawsuit from the public courts, if Amazon wanted that route.
The platform’s right-wing popularity rose after the November election and was seen as a likely vehicle for President Donald Trump to reach his followers after being ripped from most conventional media platforms after the siege of United States Capitol. In addition to the Amazon move, Google and Apple removed Parler from their app stores.
In his complaint filed Monday, Parler stated that “Amazon’s decision to effectively terminate Parler’s account is apparently motivated by political animus. It is also apparently designed to reduce competition in the microblogging services market in favor of Twitter.” , he alleged.