Parler website partially returns with support from Russian tech company | Social media



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Parler, the social network popular with Donald Trump supporters, has partially returned online with help from a Russian tech company.

The network disappeared from the internet after being abandoned by the hosting arm of Amazon and other partners due to lack of moderation after its users called for violence and posted videos glorifying the attack from the United States Capitol on January 6.

Parler’s website was back online on Monday, but only with a message from its managing director, John Matze, saying he was working on restoring the feature.

The Internet Protocol (IP) address she used belongs to DDos-Guard, which is controlled by two Russian men and provides services including protection against distributed denial of service attacks, the Reuters told Reuters. infrastructure expert Ronald Guilmette.

Other DDoS-Guard clients include the Russian Defense Ministry, as well as media organizations in Moscow. Until recently, it offered 8kun – previously known as 8chan – protection against DDoS attacks. Last week, DDoS-Guard became the latest company to sever ties with 8kun’s hosting company, VanwaTech, following requests from the Guardian.

If the Speak Up “Free Speech” website is fully restored, users will be able to view and post comments. Most users, however, prefer the app, which remains banned from official Apple and Google stores.

Matze and representatives for DDoS-Guard did not respond to requests for comment.

On Wednesday last week, Matze told Reuters the company was in talks with several service providers, but declined to give further details.

DDoS-Guard was registered in 2017 as part of a limited partnership, a financial structure in Scotland that allows non-residents to set up businesses with little control. Aleksei Likhachev and Evgeniy Marchenko, two Russian businessmen who registered it, remain owners of the company. The partnership under which DDoS-Guard is registered is called Cognitive Cloud and is listed at an address in Edinburgh’s Forth Street.

Speaking from the city of Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia last week, Marchenko said the Guardian DDoS-Guard was a global information security service hosting “thousands of Web sites”.

Critics of Parler said that depending on a Russian company was a potential security risk, as well as an odd choice for a site popular with self-proclaimed patriots.

Russian propaganda has fueled political divisions in the United States, supporting Trump and amplifying false accounts of voter fraud, but also protests against police brutality.

Speak, which revealed it has more than 12 million users, sued Amazon last week after the cloud service provider halted the service, citing poor moderation of calls for violence.

In an update on Monday, Parler.com linked to a Fox News interview in which Matze said he was “confident” that Parler would return at the end of January.

With Reuters

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