Parler has gone offline after Amazon fulfilled its promise to remove the controversial social networking site from its AWS web hosting services. Amazon removed the cap at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time, saying Parler was not properly moderating its content and that the violence being called on the site posed “a real risk to public safety.”
Parler CEO John Matze announced on his site early Monday that the service was likely to be disrupted for a while and told Parler his “latest internet support.”
“I wanted to send an update to everyone at Parler. We will probably go down more than expected “, wrote Matze on Monday at the beginning. “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 abandoning our access have caused most from other suppliers would also give up our support ”.
Matze, a self-described libertarian, said Sunday that absolutely no one wants to do business with him and that big tech companies like Apple and Amazon are collaborating to “stifle freedom of speech” by booting Parler from their platforms.
“All providers, from text messaging services to email providers to our lawyers, left us the same day,” Marze complained Sunday to Maria Bartiromo during a phone interview at Fox News.
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Parler fired into the top of Apple’s app store on Saturday after President Donald Trump was permanently banned from Twitter, leading his neo-fascist followers to look for an alternative social media site. Trump delivered a speech on Jan. 6 that sparked a riot at the U.S. Capitol that left five people dead, and Twitter said it banned Trump from reducing the likelihood the president would inspire more violence.
But Parler faced new pressure in the wake of the coup attempt at the Capitol to quell extremist calls for violence, which Apple gave to the service 24 hours before it was withdrawn on Sunday.
“Well, like I said, they claim that somehow we were responsible for what they already call the insurrection on the sixth day, which, you know, we’ve never allowed violent … of these things on our platforms,” said Matze.
You know, we’ve never allowed any of this stuff on our platform. And we don’t even have a way to coordinate an event on our platform, so somehow they want to hold us accountable. ”
To be clear, Apple has never blamed Parler for the violence that took place on January 6th. The company, like dozens of others, woke up to the fact that allowing pro-fascist discourse on its platforms could literally inspire a duly elected U.S. government leaders, such as President-elect Joe Biden. .
Bartiromo went into a strange tangent in Trump’s attempt to legislatively destroy Article 230, something Matze had previously opposed. But Matze now says he believes Article 230 should be abolished, a strange position for someone who has the task of moderating a website where he could be criminally liable without Article 230.
Matze also talked about Amazon’s threats to start Talking Sunday, complaining that it didn’t have enough time to find alternative hosting.
“Amazon is the largest cloud storage provider in the world and we use them to host our servers, you know, hundreds of them, hundreds of servers. And they gave us … they basically said you have 24 hours to get all your data and find new servers, “Matze told Bartiromo.
“So, you know, where will you find 300 to 500 servers in the 24-hour window, and how can you send them all the data from everyone in a 24-hour period? It is an impossible feat. You know, we’ll do our best to reconnect online as quickly as possible. But, you know, that’s … there are only a few things that are practically impossible. “
What kind of content are you missing right now with Talking Offline? A video that was popular before the site went offline was made by a QAnon follower who cut out Trump’s old sound bites to make the whole subtext an explicitly neo-fascist text.
“January 20 will be remembered as the day people became the rulers of this nation again,” Trump shows in the video, with brilliant graphics with things like “the time has come.”
Interestingly, this is a real thing Trump said, but it was since his infamous first inauguration on January 20, 2017. The video ended with a chart of the United States dated January 20, 2021 and l ‘QAnon WWG1WGA slogan, which stands for Where We Go One, We Gor All.
There was also content on Parler like this message from Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right troll who was ripped off Twitter in 2016 for harassment.
Parler is partly owned by Fox News personality Dan Bongino, a fact that was never mentioned during Matze’s interview with Bartiromo on Sunday. Parler has also taken money from Rebekah Mercer, a far-right financier of pro-Trump radicalism. Mercer is also the daughter of Robert Mercer, co-founder of Cambridge Analytica.
While Matze’s company is clearly fighting for its life, it’s likely that Parler may also be struggling with mismanagement. You see, Matze is not the brightest light bulb, as they say. When Matze described how he felt on Sunday, he summed it up very well.
“It’s not just scary, it’s extremely scary,” Matze said.
Correction: This article originally included a typographical error in the QAnon slogan. The real slogan is “Where we go one, we all go” and not “Where we go one, we all go,” a much more fun slogan if we’re honest. Gizmodo regrets the mistake.