In the wake of recent violent events that occurred in Washington DC, Parler, a social media network has been banned by Big Tech companies Apple, Google and Amazon. Here's an explanation of what exactly Parler is and what led to its abrupt and total suspension :
- 'Parler' is an American social networking service often promoted as an alternative to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and shares several characteristics with them.
- It was founded by John Matze, Jared Thomson and, perhaps, most notably Rebekah Mercer – the daughter of Robert Mercer, co-founder of the now-defunct Cambridge Analytica.
- Claiming itself to be the world’s “premier free speech platform”, it promotes “Speak freely and express yourself openly, without fear of being “deplatformed” for your views."
- It all started when the social media app skyrocketed in popularity in the run-up to and after the 2020 US Presidential elections, despite having dull user and daily traffic numbers earlier.
- As of December 2020, they had 2.3 million active users, which increased to over 15 million within one month but the platform has been entirely offline ever since January 10, 2021.
-The network turned into something of a haven for conservative-minded individuals and Trump supporters, providing a platform for fuelling extremist right-wing conversations that had the potential of turning nasty.
-The app was flooded with streams of fake reports and conspiracy theories including the same baseless theories of electoral fraud that President Trump has followed for months.
-After several accusations surfaced against Parler, alleging that it had contributed in provoking the storming of the US Capitol, the network was delisted by several companies including Apple and Google.
- And lastly on Sunday, Amazon announced that it had banned the platform from using Amazon Web Services, for its failure to restrict hate speech and inciting content.
- Not being able to find another hosting service, Parler will remain suspended curbing further incitement of violent activities to some extent in the US at such a tense and delicate time.
- However, Parler did not remain silent on the issue and has hit back by suing Amazon, accusing it of breaking antitrust laws by removing it.
- The platform has asked a federal judge to order Amazon to reinstate it after saying that "AWS's decision to effectively terminate Parler's account is apparently motivated by political animus".
- In conclusion though, Parler CEO has accepted that the social media app might never return online, as it has been unable to find a new cloud service, ever since all the cloud hosting companies refused to work with it.
