Parler, the once-massively popular, conservative alternative social media network that seemed to truly embrace the idea of free speech online, is taking another huge swing at Amazon Web Services and Amazon months after the online retail giant and provider of web hosting forced the company offline.
According to Fox Business, Parler, which is now under the leadership of CEO Mark Meckler, dropped their original antitrust lawsuit and have filed both claims of defamation and “breach of contract” against the company, calling Amazon a “bully” in the latest lawsuit, which was filed in the company’s home state of Washington.
At the crux of the issue for Parler is that they believe Amazon only decided to take the website offline in the wake of Twitter and Facebook banning former President Donald Trump from those platforms, alleging that Amazon was concerned that if Trump made the official move to Parler, he would bring along millions of followers, which would have put Parler in near-direct competition with the social media giants.
“The true reason why AWS decided to suspend and/or terminate its contract with Parler was not because of any alleged breach of the contract, but because AWS did not want Parler to be able to provide a new platform to conservative voices, including Donald Trump, or to compete effectively with other microblogging platforms such as Twitter,” Angelo Calfo wrote, an attorney for Parler.
Parler’s legal counsel also pointed out that prior to the media circus surrounding Trump’s removal from Twitter and Facebook, Amazon never seemed to have an issue with the content on the platform for the two years prior to that. Parler said that they complied with Amazon’s request to remove content on the site, saying that they removed all “arguably inappropriate content” to satisfy Amazon’s demands at the time.
But it didn’t matter, as Amazon joined in on the left’s pearl-clutching after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots in an attempt to frame Trump and all of his supporters as the bad guys.
The new lawsuit also highlights “Amazon’s efforts to destroy an up-and-coming technology company through deceptive, defamatory, anticompetitive, and bad faith conduct.”
The latest reporting on the new round of lawsuits filed by Parler against Amazon didn’t specify the amount of damages it was seeking, but Parler’s counsel pointed out in the suit that prior to Amazon’s takedown of the site in January, the emerging social network was valued at approximately $1 billion, claiming that Amazon’s actions took a significant toll on that number as the social network attempts to rebuild.
Unfortunately for the network, after being offline for so long, gaining back even a shred of the momentum it had prior to being banned from the internet will be a monumental challenge, as many of its users flocked to other, smaller networks to set up their social media presences.
Do you think Parler will be able to make a comeback?
We wish Parler the best and hope they prevail in what will likely be a long, expensive legal fight against one of the largest and most powerful tech companies on the planet.
ARTICLE SOURCE: thefederalistpapers.org
