Judge Refuses To Reinstate Parler After Amazon Shut It Down

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The Parler logo is seen on an Apple iPhone in this photo illustration.





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Amazon Says Parler Systematically Unwilling To Remove Violent Content

In defending against the suit, Amazon considered the matter a simple case of breach of contract. The company flagged more than 100 pieces of content advocating violence, which is against its policies, and Parler failed to remove the posts, according to Amazon’s attorneys. The posts cited by Amazon include violent threats directed at Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and leaders in the Democratic Party.

In defending its decision to boot Parler off its web services, Amazon pointed to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the much-debated 1996 federal law that prevents people from suing Internet companies over what users post.

The law also lets tech companies create and enforce rules over what is allowed and not allowed on their sites.



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«That is precisely what AWS did here: removed access to content it considered ‘excessively violent’ and ‘harassing,' attorneys for Amazon wrote in its submission to the court.

In her opinion, Rothstein agreed with Amazon, ruling that Parler’s antitrust claim is «dwindlingly slight and that the breach of contract argument «failed. She wrote that it was Parler, not Amazon, that violated the terms of the contract.

She pointed to the rioters who stormed the Capitol and documented their violent acts on Parler.

«The Court explicitly rejects any suggestion that the balance of equities or the public interest favors obligating AWS to host the kind of abusive, violent content at issue in this case, particularly in light of the recent riots at the U.S. Capitol, Rothstein wrote. «That event was a tragic reminder that inflammatory rhetoric can—more swiftly and easily than many of us would have hoped—turn a lawful protest into a violent insurrection.

Parler’s lawsuit appears to have been hastily put together. The judge scolded the company for not properly serving Amazon the lawsuit. And in the complaint, Parler claimed that Amazon did not retaliate against Twitter when a hashtag suggesting violence against former Vice President Mike Pence briefly trended on the site. But Amazon, as it was quick to point out, does not host Twitter’s feed.

David Groesbeck, a lawyer representing Parler, wrote that the company’s hope that it could quickly find a new web-hosting service has not come to fruition, creating a dire situation that Parler’s CEO has said could spell the death of the site.

«The notoriety and fallout from the break-up have driven away current and potential business partners, utterly frustrating Parler’s pre-termination plans to quickly replace and recover from AWS, Groesbeck wrote in a recent filing.

Parler, which is funded in part by Rebekah Mercer, a major donor of former President Donald Trump, has discussed housing its own servers and supporting its own web hosting. Trump, too, floated the idea of launching his own social media service after Twitter permanently suspended him.

Disinformation researchers said Amazon’s shutdown of Parler eliminated a key gathering place for the sharing and discussion of the election-related conspiracies that Trump has often fanned.



Technology
Conservatives Flock To Mercer-Funded Parler, Claim Censorship On Facebook And Twitter

«The reason why we’re experiencing this corporate denial of service is because there are really no other levers possible to stop this group of people from reassembling and either trying this again or trying something else that’s just as dangerous, said Joan Donovan, an expert on online extremism at Harvard. «It’s going to be really important that when they make these decisions, they stick and that they don’t walk them back once the heat is off.

Editor’s note: Amazon is among NPR’s recent financial supporters.