Amazon And Apple Drop Parler

Enlarge this image


Amazon and Apple took steps to cut off Parler from their platforms on Saturday.





Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images



hide caption



toggle caption


Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images



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



Insurrection At The Capitol: Live Updates
As Inauguration Nears, Concern Of More Violence Grows

Parler CEO John Matze responded with a post on the site, calling Amazon’s action «an attempt to completely remove free speech off the internet. He said Parler could be unavailable for a week «as we rebuild from scratch.

Researchers who monitor online extremism say Parler, Gab, TheDonald and MeWe are among several of the more accessible online forums that have hosted the spread of increasingly dangerous ideologies. Since November, messages on such sites have echoed Trump’s falsehoods about a «stolen election.

Users have interpreted Trump’s calls to action as the basis for violence, seen when the president’s most fervent supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to interrupt the certification of the Electoral College’s votes for president.

Amazon and Apple’s moves are part of a wide crackdown by tech companies who are under pressure to enact stronger measures against threats of violence. A day earlier, Twitter permanently suspended President Trump, and soon after, Google removed the Parler app from its Play Store.

As of publishing time, Parler’s Apple app was still usable for those who had already downloaded it from the app store. Amazon said it would remove Parler effective 11:59 p.m. PT Sunday.

Apple left open the possibility of allowing Parler back if «they resolve these issues.