Parler goes offline as Amazon pulls plug on hosting

Parler has gone offline after Amazon pulled support for the so-called “free speech” social network. The platform had been reliant on the tech giant’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing service to provide its alternative to Twitter.

“Recently, we’ve seen a steady increase in this violent content on your website, all of which violates our terms,” Amazon told Parler, according to BuzzFeed News. “It’s clear that Parler does not have an effective process to comply with the AWS terms of service.”

“We cannot provide services to a customer that is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others.”

Parler was paying Amazon as much as $300,000 per month for online hosting, BuzzFeed reported.

Amazon took the action after finding dozens of posts on the service which it said encouraged violence. Google and Apple had already removed Parler from their app stores towards the end of last week saying it had failed to comply with their content-moderation requirements.

However, it had still been accessible via the web – although visitors had complained of being unable to create new accounts over the weekend, without which it was not possible to view its content.

Parler has been online since 2018, and may return if it can find an alternative host.

However, chief executive John Matze told Fox News on Sunday that “every vendor from text message services to email providers to our lawyers all ditched us too”.

“We’re going to try our best to get back online as quickly as possible, but we’re having a lot of trouble because every vendor we talk to says they won’t work with us because if Apple doesn’t approve and Google doesn’t approve, they won’t,” he added.

AWS’s move is the latest in a series of actions affecting social media following the rioting on Capitol Hill last week.