Judge rejects Parler's attempt to force Amazon to host it
Amazon Web Services was within its rights to shut down social media platform Parler, a federal judge ruled Thursday, rejecting a move by the site to force Amazon to reinstate it.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle denied a request by Parler for a preliminary injunction that sought to require AWS to continue hosting the site. Rothstein said Parler offered little more than conjecture that AWS had conspired with Twitter to harm its business and said the web hosting service “argued convincingly” that it sought to prevent Parler from being used to promote violence.
The evidence Parler “has submitted in support of the claim is both dwindlingly slight, and disputed by AWS,” she said in a decision denying Parler a preliminary injunction.
Background: Parler sued AWS after the company shut off its hosting services to the social media platform days after the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. Parler, which has gained traction with conservatives for its lax moderation policies, alleged that AWS’s actions violated antitrust laws. The social media site had about 15 million users and was surging in popularity after rival microblogging site Twitter suspended then-President Donald Trump’s account.
Parler was unavailable for about a week but reappeared online in skeletal form Sunday. It is now being hosted by Epik, which also hosts Gab, another social network popular among conservatives that faced problems after a man used the site to post incendiary messages before a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
