The website for the right-wing social media app Parler suddenly reappeared with a message on Sunday, just a week after Amazon suspended it from its web hosting service and Google and Apple removed it from their app stores.
“Hello world, is this it?” CEO John Matze wrote in a message, dated January 16, accompanied by an image of an egg timer and a banner with “technical difficulties”.
“Now seems like the right time to remind everyone – both lovers and haters – why we started this platform,” Matze continued. “We believe that confidentiality is paramount and freedom of expression is essential, especially on social media. Our goal has always been to provide a non-partisan public market in which people can enjoy and exercise their rights to both.
“We will solve any challenge in front of us and we intend to welcome you all soon. We will not let the civil discourse perish! ‘
While the Parler site showed limited signs of life on Sunday, its app still remains completely offline.
“Hello world, is this it?” CEO John Matze wrote in a message dated January 16, accompanied by an image of an egg timer and a banner “technical difficulties”
“Now seems the right time to remind everyone – both lovers and haters – why we started this platform,” continued Matze (pictured above). “We believe that privacy is paramount and freedom of expression is essential, especially on social media.”
Just over a week ago, Apple Inc. suspended Parler from the App Store shortly after Google, owned by Alphabet, banned it from Google Play, following the January 6 riots in the US Chapter. The application is not yet available for download on both. platforms.
Amazon.com Inc. then suspended Parler from its web hosting service, effectively taking the site offline.
In a letter announcing the move, Amazon said it “cannot provide services to a customer who is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others.”
Parler was largely accused of not eliminating posts that incited violence against elected officials, including Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi. The platform was also identified as a site where people involved in the deadly attack planned the attack.
Since then, Parler has re-registered his domain with right-wing web hosting company Epik, a company that supports far-right sites such as Gab and 8chan.
It remains unclear who Parler’s web host is, as the company has not yet commented on the matter.
In a statement to CNN, Epik spokesman Robert Davis said the company does not provide Parler’s web hosting.
Davis said Epik has a zero-tolerance approach to fighting racism and “actively denounces any activity used to create difficulties for others based on skin color, ethnicity, origin or belief system.”
Just over a week ago, Apple Inc. suspended Parler from the App Store shortly after Google, owned by Alphabet, banned it from Google Play, following the January 6 riots in the US Chapter. The application is not yet available for download on both. platform
Amazon.com Inc. then suspended Parler from its web hosting service, effectively taking the site offline, unless it can find a new company to host its services.
Last week, Parler disappeared from the web with an error message saying “we can’t connect to the server” after Amazon pulled out
The application was removed from the Google App Store after conservative social media users traveled to the site following the Capitol attack
Epik previously issued a lengthy statement on January 11, exploding what it called a “knee reaction” by Google and Amazon to “simply unbalance and end any relationship that on the surface seems problematic or controversial.”
Parler sued Amazon last week, claiming that its suspension from the company’s online hosting service violates antitrust law and violates companies’ contracts.
The platform’s complaint accused Amazon of applying a politically motivated double standard to Parler and reducing “competition in the microblogging market for the benefit of Twitter.”
The e-commerce giant’s lawyers issued a statement a few days later defending the decision, saying Parler had shown a “lack of desire and inability” to remove content that “threatens public safety, such as inciting and planning rape.” torture and murder of appointed civil servants and private citizens. ‘
In a file sent by Amazon on Tuesday, the company said that the company “repeatedly notified” Parler that its content violated the agreement and requested its removal, “only to determine that Parler was not and could not do so.” .
John Matze founded Parler in 2018 as a “free-speech” alternative to mainstream platforms. He is photographed with his family
Right-wing social media users gathered at Parler, along with other apps like Telegram and the social site Gab, citing the more aggressive police of political comments on mass platforms like Twitter and Facebook, which has intensified since the Chapter riot.
A file on Friday by Matze claimed that the CEO was forced to flee his home after receiving death threats following the riots.
His lawyer, David Groesbeck, wrote in the document that Matze had to “hide with his family after receiving death threats and invasive breaches of personal security.”
The filing came as part of Parler’s antitrust lawsuit against Amazon and sought to seal parts of the lawsuit as a security measure.
Five people were killed in the January 6 riots in DC, including a Capitol police officer who was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher and a woman who was shot by law enforcement while trying to force her way. through a barricaded door.
President Trump himself has seen some of his accounts suspended indefinitely by a number of social media companies – including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – for their perceived role in inciting the insurrection.