The Parler logo seen displayed on a smartphone with the Google, Amazon and Apple logos displayed on the PC screen in the background. Google, Apple and Amazon have suspended the Parler social app.
Pavlo Gonchar | LightRocket | Getty Images
Amazon has defended its decision to drop Parler from its web hosting service in response to a lawsuit filed by the social media app earlier this week.
In court files on Tuesday, Amazon said it had reported dozens of violent content in the social application since November. The company claimed that Parler violated its contract with Amazon’s cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS), when it failed to remove the content and that AWS suspended Parler’s account “as a last resort”.
“This case is not about suppressing speech or suffocating views,” Amazon wrote in its response to Parler. “It is not a conspiracy to restrict trade. Instead, the case concerns Parler’s refusal and demonstrated inability to remove AWS content from the servers that threatens public safety, such as by inciting and planning rape, torture, and murder of the public called officials and private citizens. “
Amazon plugged in Parler, a popular social networking app among Trump supporters, last week following the deadly riots in the US Chapter. Parler filed a lawsuit against Amazon on Monday, accusing Amazon of violating its contract and violating antitrust laws. Parler also asked the court for a temporary restraining order to force AWS to reinstate its account.
In its response to the Parler lawsuit, Amazon argued that restoring the web service to Parler would harm the public, outweighing “any speculative damages that Parler claims may suffer” due to the fact that its website is offline.
He also rejected Parler’s allegation that AWS violated antitrust laws by denying him service. He cited section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a law favored by Silicon Valley and increasingly challenged by lawmakers, which protects technology companies from being responsible for what users post on their platforms.
Amazon said it began reporting content in violation of its terms of service to Parler on November 17 last year. Over the next seven weeks, Amazon said it reported more than 100 additional content supporting the violence.
Amazon included some examples of content in exhibits alongside its trial, which include death threats against members of Congress, technology company executives such as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, as well as Chapter Police USA, among other groups. In some Parler posts, users threatened to “burn Amazon delivery trucks” and Apple stores, as well as “confiscate Amazon servers.”
“We should peacefully gather outside of all these technological tyrants houses and businesses, then protest peacefully and loot and burn them,” a Parler post said, according to the court file.
Amazon said the content that encourages violence has risen after violence from some Trump supporters in the US chapter, which left five dead. Following the uprising, politicians and the public called on social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to moderate their platforms more closely, in order to prevent incitement to violence.
Amazon has held calls with Parler executives in the aftermath of the riots, raising concerns about Parler’s ineffective moderation strategies, which included relying on volunteers to report content. Parler CEO John Matze said for one of those calls that the site had a backlog of 26,000 content reports that violated its policies and was still on the site, the case said.
“Parler’s own failures have left AWS only a possibility to suspend Parler’s account,” Amazon said in the file.
Parler did not respond to a request for comment. Amazon has previously said there is “no merit” to the allegations in Parler’s lawsuit.