Parler, a popular social media app among conservatives and supporters of President Donald Trump, has gone offline after Amazon withdrew its support in the wake of the deadly U.S. Capitol uprising last week.
The application depended on the cloud computing power provided by Amazon Web Services.
AWS told Parler on Saturday that it will stop providing cloud services to the company starting Sunday at 11:59 p.m., according to an email obtained by CNBC. An Amazon spokesman confirmed the authenticity of the letter to CNBC, but declined to comment.
John Matze, founder and CEO, said Monday in a statement that the Parler app will be “longer than expected” because other cloud hosting companies do not want to work with Parler in light of press releases issued by Amazon, Google and Apple.
“We’ll probably go down more than expected,” Matze wrote. “This is not due to software restrictions: we have our software and everyone’s data ready. Rather, statements by Amazon, Google and Apple to the press about the drop in our access have caused most of the other vendors stop supporting us well. “
He added: “Most people with enough servers to accommodate us have closed their doors. We will update everyone and update the press when we are back online.”
AWS told Parler in the email that it had flagged 98 examples to Parler of publications that “clearly encourage and incite violence.” Among the posts he reported to Parler, which were seen by CNBC, users of the platform made violent threats aimed at “liberal leaders, liberal activists #blm leaders and supporters,” as well as other groups.
Screenshots of the Parler app seen by CNBC show users posting references to firing squads, as well as calls to bear arms at the presidential inauguration later this month.
Matze condemned the tech giant’s moves in a series of posts on Parler over the weekend, claiming that its platform had removed violent content and added that its community guidelines do not allow Parler to be used consciously to to criminal activities.
“We are the worlds [sic] last hope for free speech and free information. What they do is unprecedented, unfounded and absolutely disgusting, “Matze wrote Saturday night.” They want to maintain their monopoly on speech. “
In response, an AWS spokesman told CNBC that AWS provides services to customers across the political spectrum and confirmed that the suspension was due to content that, according to the company, clearly encouraged violence.
Apple withdrew Talk from the iPhone App Store on Saturday. The company said publications in Parler related to the U.S. Capitol riots last week included requests for violence, which violate Apple’s rules against nasty content.
“We have always supported the representation of various points of view in the App Store, but on our platform there is no room for threats of violence and illegal activity,” an Apple representative said in a statement. . “Parler has not taken the appropriate steps to address the proliferation of these threats to people’s safety. We have suspended Parler from the App Store until these issues are resolved.”
Google removed Parler from its Android app store, Google Play, on Friday.
“In order to protect the safety of users on Google Play, our long-term policies require that apps that display user-generated content have moderation and application policies that remove flagrant content, such as posts that incite violence. said a Google spokesman.
“All developers agree with these terms and we have reminded Parler of this clear policy in recent months. We are aware of the continued publication in the Parler app that seeks to incite continued violence in the United States. We recognize that there may be a reasonable debate about content policies and that it can be difficult for apps to immediately remove all content that infringes rights, but that we distribute an app through Google Play, we need apps to implement solid moderation for blatant content. in light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat, we will suspend app files from the Play Store until you resolve these issues.
The news comes after the permanent suspension of Twitter from Trump’s Twitter account, which had 88 million followers, so he said it was the incitement of the president’s violence related to the Capitol Building storm, which caused five dead. Trump later condemned the violence. Trump has also been banned on Facebook and Instagram.
Gab, a Parler-like social network known for its far-right user base and frequent follow-up of hate speech, seems to be benefiting from the consequences. On Monday, Gab CEO Andrew Torba announced that the platform had gained 600,000 new users.
– Additional reports from Annie Palmer and Natasha Turak of CNBC.