Amazon joins Apple, Google in dumping Parler, platform for Trump loyalists

Amazon will suspend Parler, sending the social media network offline after it was banned by Apple and Google for allowing ‘threats of violence’

Twitter’s note to users that Donald Trump’s account has been suspended. Picture: Getty Images

Amazon will suspend Parler, sending the social media network offline after it was banned by Apple and Google for allowing “threats of violence” in the wake of a deadly riot at the US Capitol.

The Parler social network has become a haven for conservatives who say they have been censored by other social media platforms.

It had soared in popularity in recent months, becoming the No 1 free app on Apple’s App Store on Sunday AEDT after the much larger Twitter decided to permanently ban US President Donald Trump from its platform for his role in inciting violence at the Capitol.

Messages of support for the ­rioters along with calls for new demonstrations had flourished on the platform, leading Google to remove it from its app store on Saturday, followed by Apple on Sunday.

Amazon then moved to wipe it from its cloud hosting Amazon Web Services, pushing it offline entirely. In a letter to Parler first published by Buzzfeed, Amazon said the network was not acting quickly enough against violent content on the platform.

“We’ve seen a steady increase in this violent content on your website, all of which violates our terms of service,” the letter, the contents of which were confirmed by Amazon, said.

Given the riot at the Capitol last week, the letter continued, there was a “serious risk that this type of content will further incite violence”.

It will suspend the account just before midnight Pacific Standard Time on Sunday (6.59pm AEDT ).

As the group hosts Parler’s data on its cloud service, this should prevent it from functioning, at least temporarily.

The founder of Parler, John Matz, confirmed on his profile that there was a possibility the network would be unavailable “for up to a week” as it searched for a new host. “We will try our best to move to a new provider right now.”

Amazon’s decision has much more far-reaching impact than the moves by Google and Apple.

They had made it more complicated to download the Parler app, but users could still access it if it was already downloaded or if they were using an internet browser.

“We have always supported diverse points of view being represented on the App Store, but there is no place on our platform for threats of violence and illegal ­activity,” Apple said on Sunday.

“Parler has not taken adequate measures to address the proliferation of these threats to people’s safety. We have suspended Parler from the App Store until they resolve these issues.”

Google pulled Parler from its app store for allowing “egregious content” that could incite deadly ­violence like that seen at the Capitol. Trump supporters swarmed the building on Wednesday as congress met to certify Joe Biden’s Nov­ember 3 election win, leaving five people — including a policeman — dead.

Other social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitch have also suspended Mr Trump following the attack on the Capitol.

Mr Matze has said the platform has “many options” for moving ahead. Parler started in 2018 and was initially a home for the extreme right, but now it attracts more traditional conservative ­voices, including Republicans.

Friends, family and advisers to Mr Trump complained about Twitter’s ban of the President. “Free speech is dead & controlled by leftist overlords,” tweeted Donald Trump Jr, the President’s older son. Asked Rudy Giuliani, the President’s personal lawyer, “Who will be silenced next?” And Mike Pompeo — posting not as secretary of state but on his personal account — tweeted: “Sadly, this isn’t a new tactic of the Left. They’ve worked to silence opposing voices for years.”

For Republican senator Ted Cruz, the decisions by Twitter and some other social media were “absurd & profoundly dangerous”.

“Why,” he went on, “should a handful of Silicon Valley billionaires have a monopoly on political speech?”

Every one of the above mess­ages was posted on Twitter, which for years has been Mr Trump’s preferred means of communicating with the public — and sometimes even other world leaders.

The question now is where Mr Trump and his 88 million Twitter followers will turn next.

Donald Jr, himself fearing exclusion from Twitter, has asked his followers to send him their email contacts so he can keep them abreast of news. In a quickly deleted tweet, the President on Saturday spoke of creating his own platform “in the near future,” without providing any detail.

Conservative platforms popular among Mr Trump’s fiercest supporters, like Parler and Gab, have drawn growing numbers of users. Gab saw “record traffic” on Friday night and Saturday, according to its creator Andrew Torba, and had to add computer servers to handle it.

AFP