[ad_1]
“I believe AWS’s decision to end service at Talk was based, not on concerns expressed about Talking’s compliance with the AWS deal, but in part on a desire to deny President Trump a platform. on any major social media service, ”John Matze said. Parler points out that it does little to limit what its users can post and that it has become popular among conservatives.
Key context: After his suspension from Twitter, Trump was considering other options, and other conservatives angry with Twitter or who were booted from the site pushed Speak as a new destination. If the company had been successful in convincing Trump to sign up, it would have been a major boon for a site that has long been a niche platform.
At the hearing: Groesbeck also categorically denied that Parler was involved in the Capitol Hill attack last week and urged Judge Barbara J. Rothstein to order Amazon Web Services to reinstate its web hosting service.
“AWS alleges without evidence that Parler was used to incite riots,” Groesbeck said. “There is no evidence other than a few anecdotal press references that Parler was involved in the January 6 riots.”
“Millions of Americans have had their voices silenced by AWS,” Groesbeck said.
How we got hereTwitter on Friday night suspended Trump’s account for good, fearing he would incite further violence. Conservatives angry at what they called the president’s censorship ditched the platform for alternatives like Parler that have less moderation.
Speak, which had 15 million users when it was taken out on Sunday, was adding around 1 million new users every day, lawyers said at the hearing.
Over the weekend, Apple and Google pulled Talking from their app stores due to its inability to adopt a content moderation plan to deal with violent threats. Amazon, which hosted the site, also cut its web hosting services to Parler shortly before midnight Sunday due to the social media platform’s breach of its terms of service.
Talking sued Amazon on Monday, alleging antitrust and breach of contract claims. Groesbeck said he intended to file the complaint and a request for a temporary restraining order on Sunday, but was having technical difficulties with the Federal Court’s electronic filing system.
Amazon’s response: Ambika Doran, attorney for Amazon, said the AWS contract allows the company to temporarily suspend or terminate accounts that do not meet the terms of service. AWS provided Talk with about 100 examples of posts that violate the terms of service, she said, and the social media service had no plans to effectively moderate content that incites violence.
“Amazon had every right to do what it was doing under the contract,” she said.
Amazon executives were concerned about continuing to host the site due to an increase in violent posts after the January 6 riots, Doran said. With the addition of so many users, Parler could have had 25 million users by the launch day on Jan.20, she said. Despite the increase in the number of users, the company has been slow to remove violent threats of rape, murder and torture from its platform, Doran said.
“No one at Parler says they have an effective moderation plan,” she says.
She also took issue with Parler’s claims that AWS promoted Twitter. The main live stream for Twitter is not hosted by AWS, she said.
And after: Rothstein did not say how she would govern, but said she would make a decision quickly.
[ad_2]
Source link