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A district court judge on Thursday dismissed Parler’s petition for a temporary restraining order against Amazon, which took the conservative social media platform offline last week for violating its terms of service by inciting the violence following the siege of the United States Capitol on January 6.
Parler’s petition was joined to its larger lawsuit against Amazon Cloud Services, alleging a conspiracy to restrict trade; breach of contract; and tort interference. In reviewing a restraining order, Judge Barbara Jacobs Rothstein, a United States District Court judge for the Western District of Washington in Seattle, had to determine the likelihood that Parler would eventually prevail over her claims. She said the service had been unlucky on all three points.
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“The Court explicitly rejects any suggestion that a balance of actions or the public interest favors AWS’s obligation to host the type of abusive and violent content at issue in this case, particularly in light of the recent riots in US Capitol. This event was a tragic reminder that inflammatory rhetoric can – more quickly and easily than many of us have hoped – turn a legal protest into a violent insurgency, ”the judge wrote.
On the first allegation, the judge said, Parler failed to show that he was likely to be successful on the merits of his Sherman Law conspiracy claim that Amazon and Twitter – which permanently suspended the account of former President Donald Trump for inciting on Capitol rioters – acted in concert. “The evidence she has submitted to support this claim is both shrinking and disputed by AWS. Importantly, Parler has provided no evidence that AWS and Twitter have acted together intentionally – or even at all – to restrict trade … In short, Parler has only made weak and factually inaccurate speculation in support of ‘a violation of Sherman Law. “
She said Parler does not deny that the content posted on her platform violated the terms of its agreement with Amazon, only saying that AWS did not notify Parler that Parler was in violation and gave it 30 days. to heal, as Parler claims. is required. But she notes that the service contract allows AWS to terminate “immediately upon notice.” The social media platform “has failed to raise more than the slightest speculation that AWS’s actions were taken for an improper purpose or through improper means.”
She also doubted the evidence presented by Parler to support her claim of tortious interference.
Amazon called Parler’s trial “unfounded” and the facts “unequivocal.”
In a court filing in response to Parler’s lawsuit, attorneys for the company led by Jeff Bezos said the Parler lawsuit “was not intended to suppress speech or stifle views. This is not a conspiracy to restrict trade. Instead, this case concerns Parler’s demonstrated reluctance and inability to remove Amazon Web Services (AWS) content from servers that threatens public safety, for example by inciting and planning rape, torture, and abuse. assassination of public officials and individuals. . “
Speak, a young service launched in 2018, had seen its user base grow as conservative voices, QAnon henchmen, and stop-the-steal conspiracy theorists first fell out of mainstream social media, then moved on. found their chief conspirator blocked from platforms including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat. Apple and Google have removed Parler from their app stores.
We don’t know when Parler will return. Its homepage points out technical difficulties and says, “It seems like now is the time to remind everyone – both in love and hate – why we launched this platform. We believe privacy is paramount and freedom of expression is essential, especially on social media. Our goal has always been to provide a non-partisan public place where individuals can enjoy and exercise their rights over both.
Parler CEO John Matze told Fox News on Sunday night that he was confident the service would be back by the end of the month.
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