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Parler sues Amazon for removing it from cloud service

Published

2 years ago

January 11, 2021

Staff Writer

UPDATED

The free speech social media site Parler has sued Amazon on Monday after Amazon Web Services (AWS) suspended Parler from its cloud hosting service following last week’s deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Google and Apple also suspended the Parler app from their app stores on Friday for failing to moderate “egregious content” posted by users about last Wednesday’s violent storming and siege of the Capitol.

Parler has become popular among conservatives who are fed-up with what they see as censorship and anti-conservative bias from social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

In the complaint filed Monday in a Seattle federal court, Parler is requesting a temporary restraining order to prevent AWS from blacklisting the social media site and argues that AWS is breaching the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.

“AWS’s decision to effectively terminate Parler’s account is apparently motivated by political animus,” Parler argues in its filing. “AWS is violating Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act in combination with Defendant Twitter. AWS is also breaching it[s] contract with Parler, which requires AWS to provide Parler with a thirty-day notice before terminating service, rather than the less than thirty-hour notice AWS actually provided. Finally, AWS is committing intentional interference with prospective economic advantage given the millions of users expected to sign up in the near future.”

Parler alleges that, because it is a direct competitor of Twitter, it is being singled out. It also claimed that Amazon was breaching its contract with Parler.

“Last month, Defendant Amazon Web Services, Inc. (‘AWS’) and the popular social media platform Twitter signed a multi-year deal so that AWS could support the daily delivery of millions of tweets,” the filing reads. “AWS currently provides that same service to Parler, a conservative microblogging alternative and competitor to Twitter.”

“When Twitter announced two evenings ago that it was permanently banning President Trump from its platform, conservative users began to flee Twitter en masse for Parler,” it continues. “The exodus was so large that the next day, yesterday, Parler became the number one free app downloaded from Apple’s App Store.”

“As more of a libertarian, more of a minimal government type of person, I hate relying on the legal system,” Parler CEO John Matze told The Wall Street Journal in a Sunday interview. “I know we have to.”

However, an Amazon Web Services spokesperson said in a statement to this reporter Monday, “There is no merit to these claims. AWS provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum, and we respect Parler’s right to determine for itself what content it will allow.”

Amazon adds, “However, it is clear that there is significant content on Parler that encourages and incites violence against others, and that Parler is unable or unwilling to promptly identify and remove this content, which is a violation of our terms of service. We made our concerns known to Parler over a number of weeks and during that time we saw a significant increase in this type of dangerous content, not a decrease, which led to our suspension of their services Sunday evening.”

During an Monday interview on the Fox News program “Mornings with Maria,” Matze told Parler users to “hold on and come back” as the company figures out how to move forward.

“Nobody has presented any credible piece of information or evidence that, you know, there is anything problems on Parler that don’t exist on other platforms,” Matze said.

“This really is a double standard. […] We see all sorts of nasty threatening content on Twitter, much more of it actually, in our opinion, and, actually, a lot of content that’s deleted from Parler still remains on Twitter to this day in the form of screenshots,” Matze continued. “So I don’t understand, you know, what this is really about. Because it is not about holding everybody to account equally. It is about giving preferential treatment to certain people.”

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.

Related Topics:Amazon censorship parler Twitter

Featured

Las Vegas Backyard UFO Encounter and Its Connection to Historic UFO Incidents

Published

1 day ago

June 8, 2023

Alexander Carter

In a Las Vegas suburb, a family’s experience has put them into the realm of the unexplained. What started as a crashed object in their backyard and sightings of “non-human” beings has now unveiled a captivating connection to two historic UFO incidents—Trinity and Rendlesham Forest.

It was a late April night when the people of Las Vegas witnessed something extraordinary. Multiple witnesses, including law enforcement officers, observed a streak across the sky. Body cam footage from one of the responding police officers displays the spectacle. As reports flooded in from across eastern California, Nevada, and Utah, the American Meteor Society took note, hinting at a spectacle that defied easy explanation.

BREAKING: Police bodycam records UFO crash landing in Las Vegas

Residents call police saying a couple “not human” 8-10ft beings with big eyes in their backyard

Black SUVs reported in area that possibly took aircraft away & all video of backyard blacked out

Watch for yourself pic.twitter.com/0aPMVl7jV0

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) June 8, 2023

Responding to the call, two police officers were dispatched to investigate the strange occurrence. The body camera footage obtained from both officers captured their initial reactions, reflecting a mix of nerves and intrigue.

Conversations between officers and witnesses revealed astonishing claims, with one witness describing a “big creature” standing around 10 feet tall.

While one officer proceeded to inspect the backyard, the video footage from his body camera was redacted by Metro police due to privacy concerns, according to reports. Witnesses conveyed their belief in the sighting, despite expressing skepticism before. Simultaneously, another witness informed the police about an SUV circling the area, potentially adding another layer of mystery to the incident, according to reports.

But this was just the beginning.

As the incident unfolded, an web of connections emerged, drawing parallels to historical UFO encounters that have perplexed and fascinated humanity for decades. Among these, the Trinity Incident stands as a testament to the enduring mystery surrounding UFO phenomena.

The Trinity Incident, which transpired in, July 1945, was set against the backdrop of the world’s first atomic bomb test in New Mexico. Witnesses, present during the event, reported a peculiar sighting, a UFO defying the laws of physics, hovering near the blast. The incident became covered in secrecy due to its connection to the classified Manhattan Project. This led to the rise of speculation about extraterrestrial involvement and their interest in our technological advancements.

Fast forward to December 1980, when another chapter in UFO history was written, Rendlesham Forest, an event that unfolded near the RAF Woodbridge base in Suffolk, England. Military personnel stationed there encountered inexplicable lights and an otherworldly craft nestled amidst the forest. The Rendlesham Forest incident remains one of the most compelling UFO cases on record, captivating the world with its documented evidence, eyewitness testimonies, and subsequent investigations.

Now, as the Las Vegas incident captures global attention, trending on Twitter, its connection to these historical encounters become apparent. The connections are astonishing, a crashed object, sightings of strange beings upwards of 10 feet tall, and eyewitnesses who stand by their claims, just as those who witnessed the Trinity Incident and the events in Rendlesham Forest did.

What does this all mean?

In this connection of past and present, the Las Vegas backyard encounter serves as a gateway into the world of UFOs. It calls the worlds to explore the uncharted territories of the unknown, where the boundaries of our understanding are challenged.

As speculation continues to surround this perplexing event, the encounters with unidentified phenomena and the mention of “big creatures” with large gazing eyes, in a suburban backyard have left the community and investigators perplexed. The quest for answers in this unusual case remains ongoing, as locals ponder the possibility of an otherworldly presence.

Follow Alexander Carter on Twitter @AlexCarterDC for more!