Violence plans by Trump supporters: Amazon switches Parler offline

Sunday 10th January 2021

Violence plans by Trump supporters
Amazon switches Parler offline

Many Trump supporters who felt bullied by networks like Twitter or Facebook have moved to Parler in recent months. Radicals can also let off steam on the platform. After Google, Apple now also prohibits downloading. Amazon pulls the plug on the service.

Amazon has shut down the controversial intelligence service Parler. The retail giant deleted the service, which is mainly used by radical Trump supporters, from its cloud service Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the morning. This means that Parler will be temporarily offline at least until a new technical provider has been found, wrote the founder of the network, John Matz. After the violent storm on the US Capitol, the tech giants Google and Apple Parler had already banned from their app stores.

In a letter to Parler, Amazon wrote that the network had not acted quickly enough against content on the platform that incited violence. "We have seen a steady increase in this content on your website, all of which violate our Terms of Use," the letter said. In view of the riots in the US Capitol on Wednesday, there is "a serious risk that this type of content will incite further violence."

According to Parler founder Matz, Parler could not be available "for up to a week" until another cloud provider is found. "We will do our best to switch to a new provider immediately," he wrote on his profile.

No more download possible

Apple and Google had excluded the news service for the same reason. Parler has violated the App Store conditions, it said in a message from Apple to the company, about which the TV broadcaster CNN reports. The download of the news app is therefore blocked in the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store. Apple referred to contributions from users planning another armed protest in Washington.

"The processes that Parler has set up to moderate or prevent the distribution of dangerous and illegal content have proven to be inadequate," complained Apple. In particular, direct threats of violence and calls to incite illegal acts that violated the guidelines were found. Parler had been removed from the app store until the problems were resolved.

A Google spokesman had made a similar statement on Friday. Google's guidelines required apps with user-generated content to have their own guidelines to "remove content such as posts that incite violence," it said. Given the ongoing and acute threat to public safety, Parler will no longer be available until these issues are resolved.

Parler boss invokes freedom of speech

Parler is a social network that many Trump supporters switched to after being banned from services like Twitter. Twitter had permanently blocked Trump's private account on Friday. Three days after the storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters, the short message service justified the move by saying that Trump's recent tweets indicated the risk of further incitement to violence.

Parler CEO John Matze criticized on his platform, according to CNN, that Apple would ban Parler "until we give up free speech, introduce broad and invasive guidelines like Twitter and Facebook and we become a surveillance platform". Parler describes itself as an "unbiased" medium that promotes free speech and focuses on protecting user rights.

According to US media reports, the violent protests by Trump supporters on Wednesday, which culminated in the storming of the Capitol in Washington, were largely organized via apps such as Parler. People in Trump's circle had repeatedly advertised Parler as an alternative to Twitter or Facebook, which allegedly suppressed conservative views. White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said on Twitter at the end of June that she had set up an account with Parler because she was fed up with conservatives being "censored" on other platforms.