Talking will be down ‘for a while’ without AWS, executives say ‘we’re clearly distinguished’

Talking will likely be offline for “some time” Sunday night given Amazon Web Services’ decision to suspend the social media platform after Wednesday’s U.S. Capitol riot, executives said Sunday.

“We’re clearly being singled out,” Amy Peikoff, director of policy, told Fox & Friends Weekend a day after Apple suspended Talk from its App Store even though it was number one in the free apps section earlier today. .

“I think we have been treated unfairly,” she added.

CEO John Matze told “Sunday Morning Futures” that the site will try to “get back on line as quickly as possible” after writing on the platform that the site could be down for a week.

Google suspended Talking from its App Store on Friday due to a failure to moderate “blatant content” posted by users in connection with the violent siege of Capitol Hill last week.

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“We’re not necessarily being singled out by these tech companies, but certainly by the people who have lobbied them and, in fact, we think we’re set up in a lot of ways, because looking at some of the the content, these are accounts that were created two days ago and they have few pieces of content and some of them are parodies of what you would think to be a right-wing violence insider, ”said Peikoff Sunday.

She added that she was “very surprised by Apple on this subject, as they have a reputation for respecting privacy.”

Speaking faces criticism over Wednesday’s riot that saw supporters of President Trump storm the U.S. Capitol, attack police, vandalize the building and steal items from inside.

Screenshots taken from Parler and shared on other social media platforms appear to show Parler users openly discussing plans of violence during the rally leading up to the Capitol attack, including bringing in weapons and by imagining how they would use them against their political opponents.

An Apple spokesperson said in a statement to FOX Business: “We have always supported various views represented on the App Store, but there is no room on our platform for threats from. violence and illegal activities. ”

“Parler has not taken adequate measures to combat the proliferation of these threats to the security of persons,” the statement continued. “We have suspended Talking from the App Store until they resolve these issues.”

The App Review Board sent a letter to the leaders of Parler explaining that their app will be “removed from the App Store until we receive an update that complies with the App Store Review Guidelines and you have demonstrated your ability to effectively moderate and filter out dangerous items and harmful content on your service. “

A Google spokesperson confirmed in a statement to Fox News that its “long-standing policies” require that apps with user-generated content put in place measures to remove certain obscene content, including posts that incite users to violence. The developers accept these conditions.

GOOGLE SUSPEND TALKING APP FROM PLAY STORE FOR FAILURE TO MODERATE EGREGIOUS CONTENT

“We are aware of the continued publication in the Talk app which seeks to incite continued violence in the United States,” a Google spokesperson wrote in a statement. “In light of this ongoing and urgent threat to public safety, we are suspending the app’s listings on the Play Store until it resolves these issues.”

Matze told “Sunday Morning Futures” that what is happening is “extremely frightening” and that it appears Big Tech’s moves are an effort to “stifle free speech and competition in the market.”

Data analytics firm Appfigures estimated that on Saturday, Parler’s downloads would exceed 1.5 million on the App Store, largely driven by pro-Trump conservatives leaving Twitter in protest.

Appfigures estimated on Friday that “downloads increased to more than 340,000, up from around 12,000 the previous week” based on company data. It is estimated that the total number of downloads “between Wednesday and Friday added more than 450,000 new downloads”.

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The suspension of Talking by Apple and Google comes after Twitter’s decision to ban President Trump’s personal account on Friday after a crowd of his followers stormed the U.S. Capitol, resulting in several deaths. The tech company accused Trump of inciting violence.

Amazon would also suspend Talking from its Amazon Web Services (AWS) unit in a move that takes the site offline, unless it finds another hosting service.

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Amazon claims the move was made for violating AWS’s terms of service by failing to effectively handle a steady increase in violent content, according to an email from an AWS Trust and Safety team in Speaking, seen by Reuters .

AWS plans to suspend the Talk account effective Sunday at 11:59 p.m. PST, according to the email.

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the letter was genuine.

“If Amazon actually follows through on this, we won’t be anymore,” Peikoff said on Sunday, explaining that “we can’t be up and running without servers.”

When asked if there were other servers that Parler could travel to, Peikoff said, “We are working and trying to do this, but it’s not something you can do very much. quickly, so there’s a good chance we’ll be down for a while. “

“We will do our best to switch to a new vendor right now, as many are competing for our business, but Amazon, Google and Apple did so on purpose in a coordinated effort knowing that our options would be limited and that would cause the most damage. just as President Trump was banned from tech companies, ”Matze added.

Amazon Web Services Acceptable Use Policy prohibits customers from using its services for “illegal, harmful or offensive” content. An Amazon representative declined to comment.

“We don’t want this content on our platform of course,” Peikoff said. “It is not only illegal, but it is against our mission because we try to provide a non-partisan place in which people of different points of view can have productive discussions and the force and threats of force stop these discussions, in fact, they stop thinking so. is the opposite of what we want.

“We want people to think. We want them to think for themselves, ”she stressed.

At the same time, we strongly believe that Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ is a dystopian novel, ”she continued. “This is not an instruction manual, and by that I mean that in a free country, innocent people, people of whom you have no particular suspicion, should not be subjected to 24-hour mass surveillance. 24/7 and it is not Fourth Amendment to do so. this.”

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Peikoff went on to explain what she called “a critical issue”.

“Do we want all content posted online, every item to be scanned for ‘objectionable content’ as they call it, 24/7 and also removed without due process if it is. signaled by an algorithm, because that seems to be the standard that Parler is told we need to adhere to, ”she said.

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Audrey Conklin of Fox Business, James Leggate and Brittany De Lea of ​​Fox News contributed to this report.