This illustration shows the logo of the Parler social networking app displayed on a smartphone with the website in the background. (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP via Getty Images)
In Writing
UPDATED AT 6:00 PM PT – Sunday, January 10, 2021
Technical giants Apple and Amazon are suspending their services from the free-speech social media site ‘Parler’.
On Saturday, the decision came due to claims that the social media site was not taking enough steps to prevent the spread of posts inciting violence.
Parler became popular among supporters of the president as his Twitter account was permanently removed on Friday. The app was seen as a refuge for people who were kicked out of Twitter.
Apple claimed that the Capitol Hill protests were coordinated at the Parler site. In a statement on Saturday, Apple announced that the app would not be available until they had time to examine various issues.
The tech giant told Parler they would have to implement data verifiers in the messages if they wanted to avoid suspension. However, Parler chief executive John Matze said the app could be available for days. He accused Google, Amazon and Apple of trying to kill competition in the market.
It all came after Parler climbed to number one in Apple’s app store before suspending it.
On Saturday, Matze announced that Amazon would close its access to the server hosting service in an attempt to “completely eliminate Internet freedom of expression.” Matze said the ban was intentionally coordinated to cause the most damage to President Trump.
On Sunday (tomorrow) at midnight, Amazon will shut down all of our servers in an attempt to completely eliminate free speech from the Internet. There is a possibility that Parler will not be available on the Internet for up to a week, as we are rebuilding from scratch. We prepared for events like this without ever relying on the proprietary infrastructure of the Amazons and the creation of bare metal products. We will do our best to move to a new supplier right now, as we have many competing for our business, although Amazon, Google and Apple deliberately did so as a coordinated effort knowing that our options would be limited and knowing that this would cause the maximum damage since President Trump was banned from tech companies. This was a coordinated attack by the tech giants to kill competition in the market. We were too successful too fast. You can expect the war against competition and freedom of expression to continue, but don’t discount us. #speakfreely
– John Matze 🇺🇸 John Saturday, January 9, 2021
Apple will ban Parler until we give up free speech, institute broad and invasive policies like Twitter and Facebook, and become a surveillance platform chasing the guilt of those who use Parler before innocence. They claim it is due to the violence on the platform. The community disagrees with reaching number 1 in their store today. The same day, “Hang Mike Pence,” a disgusting violent suggestion, was on national trend on Twitter. The display of Apple’s horrible double standard and its great technology package apply to the community. Apple, a software monopoly, offers no alternatives to installing apps on your phone, other than your store. We don’t own our phones, Apple just rents them out. Apple, Google and the rest of the anti-competitive package of big tech tyrants coordinate their movements and work together to stifle competition in the market. We will have more details on our next plans soon as we have many options.
– John Matze 🇺🇸 John Saturday, January 9, 2021
The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., described the situation in a tweet as a “purge of conservative ideas and thought leaders.”
My thoughts this morning on the blatant attack on free speech that is happening in the United States today. Look at it and let me know your thoughts. https://t.co/7SH5nFymCR
– Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 9, 2021
“This is the monopoly of freedom of speech that these companies have,” Trump Jr. said. “Of course, Republicans, as always, are queuing up and running, not fighting reform.”
Matze noted that Parler would move to a new supplier and that several are already competing for business. Meanwhile, conservative social media users in the U.S. have begun turning to other apps and sites like ‘Telegram’ and ‘Gab’ because of what they call “aggressive police of political commentary” on Twitter and Facebook.
Matze added that the app will run again in a week once it is rebuilt from scratch.