Parler went offline after Amazon kept its promise to give up the controversial social networking site from its AWS web hosting services. Amazon removed the plug at 11:59 p.m., Pacific Time, saying Parler was not properly moderating its content and that the violence called for on the site posed a “very real risk to public safety.”
Parler CEO John Matze announced on his website early Monday that the service would probably be discontinued for a while and called Parler “his last stand on the Internet.”
“I wanted to send an update to everyone at Parler. We will probably decrease more than we expected “, Matze wrote early on Monday. “This is not due to software restrictions – we have our software and everyone’s data ready. Rather, statements by Amazon, Google and Apple to the press about giving up our access have caused most other providers to give up our support for us as well. “
Matze, a self-described libertarian, said Sunday that absolutely no one wants to do business with him and that big tech companies like Apple and Amazon are working together to “stifle freedom of expression,” kicking Parler off their platforms.
“Every provider, from text messaging to email providers to our lawyers, abandoned us on the same day,” Marze lamented to Maria Bartiromo on Sunday during a telephone interview on Fox News.
G / O Media may receive a commission
Parler shot at the top of the Apple app store on Saturday after President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter altogether, leading his neo-fascist followers to look for an alternative social networking site. Trump gave a speech on January 6 that sparked a riot in the US Chapter, leaving five people dead, and Twitter said it had banned Trump from reducing the likelihood that the president would inspire more violence.
But Parler faced new pressure following the Capitol’s coup attempt to combat extremist calls for violence, which Apple gave the service 24 hours before it was fired on Sunday.
“Well, like I said, they claim that we were somehow responsible for, you know, what they call the six-man insurrection, which, you know, I never allowed violence … I never allowed these things on the platforms ours, ”said Matze.
You know, we never allowed these things on our platform. And we don’t even have a way to coordinate an event on our platform, so they will somehow make us responsible. “
To be clear, Apple did not blame Parler for the violence that took place on January 6. The company, like dozens of others, was only awakened by the fact that allowing pro-fascist discourse on its platforms could literally inspire a coup and bring down properly elected US government leaders, such as President-elect Joe Biden.
Bartiromo got into a strange tangent of Trump’s attempt to legislatively destroy Section 230, something Matze had previously opposed. But Matze now says he believes Section 230 should be abolished, a strange position for someone tasked with moderating a website where he could be held criminally liable without Section 230.
Matze also touched on Amazon’s threats to launch Parler on Sunday, complaining that it didn’t have enough time to find a hosting alternative.
“Amazon is the largest cloud storage provider in the world and we use them to host our servers, you know, hundreds of them, hundreds of servers. And they gave us … they basically said that you have 24 hours to get all your data and to find new servers “, Matze told Bartiromo.
“So, you know, where will you find 300 to 500 servers in the 24-hour window and how can you send all the data from everyone to them in a 24-hour period?” It is an impossible feat. You know, we’ll do our best to get back online as soon as possible. But, you know, that’s … there are only a few things that are almost impossible. “
What kind of content will people be missing now with Parler offline? A video that was popular before the site went offline was made by a QAnon follower who cut out Trump’s old sounds to make the whole subtext an explicit neo-fascist text.
“January 20 will be remembered as the day people became the leaders of this nation again,” Trump’s video says, with bright graphics with things like “the time has come.”
Strangely, this is a real thing that Trump said, but it was from his infamous first inauguration, on January 20, 2017. The video ended with a chart of the United States on January 20, 2021 and the slogan QAnon WWG1WGA, which represents for Where We Go One, We Go All.
On Parler there was also content like this message from Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right troll who was launched on Twitter in 2016 for harassment.
Parler is partly owned by Fox News personality Dan Bongino, a fact that was never mentioned during Matze’s interview with Bartiromo on Sunday. Parler also took money from Rebekah Mercer, a far-right financier of pro-Trump radicalism. Mercer is also the daughter of Robert Mercer, co-founder of Cambridge Analytica.
While Matze’s company is clearly fighting for his life, Parler is probably also struggling with poor management. You see, Matze is not the brightest light bulb, as they say. When Matze described how she felt on Sunday, she summed it up nicely.
“It’s not just scary, it’s actually extremely scary,” Matze said.
Correction: This article originally included a typo in QAnon’s slogan. The real slogan is “Where we go one, we all go” not “Where we go one, we all do”, a much more fun slogan, if we are honest. Gizmodo regrets the mistake.