Parler Social Network Sues Amazon After Ban

January 13, 2021

Social media platform Parler has sued Amazon in response to being removed from Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's web hosting services.

Calling the deplatforming a "death blow," Parler said Amazon engaged in antitrust violations, breached its contract with Parler and interfered with the company's business relationship with its users.

Specifically, the complaint said Amazing breached its contract by not providing Parler 30 days' notice before cutting it off from its servers.

The suit asked a federal court for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Amazon.

"Without AWS, Parler is finished, as it has no way to get online," according to the complaint. "And a delay of granting this TRO by even one day could also sound Parler's death knell as President (Donald) Trump and others move on to other platforms."

Parler, a social network service popular with conservatives, went offline Monday after Amazon suspended it for allowing posts that encourage violence.

Before the site went down, Parler CEO John Matze accused Amazon and other tech giants of a "war on free speech."

Google banned Parler's smartphone app from its app store on Friday, also citing Parler's allowance of posts that seek to incite violence in the United States.

Apple instituted its own Parler ban on Saturday.

The two-year-old Parler saw an increase in users in recent months as social media giants Facebook and Twitter stepped up enforcement of posts that violated their policies.

Both Facebook and Twitter suspended Trump's accounts last week after some of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.