Henderson-based Parler sues Amazon after site shut down

Parler, a Henderson-based social media platform, has sued Amazon after the far-right-focused network was booted from web-hosting services.

Amazon maintained that Parler failed to moderate violent posts and decided last weekend to shut down Parler as part of a tech purge of social media believed to have fueled Wednesday’s Capitol Hill riot, which left five dead, including Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick.

In a federal complaint filed in Seattle, Parler, considered an alternative to Twitter with conservative and sometimes far-right viewpoints, argued that Amazon Web Services’ decision was “motivated by political animus. It is also apparently designed to reduce competition in the microblogging services market to the benefit of Twitter.”

According to the lawsuit, Amazon’s action served as “the equivalent of pulling the plug on a hospital patient on life support. It will kill Parler’s business — at the very time it is set to skyrocket.”

The move came after President Donald Trump’s account, with nearly 90 million followers, was banned from Twitter, which cited “the risk of further incitement of violence.”

Parler’s lawyer, David Groesbeck, pointed to media speculation that Trump could have moved to the alternative platform in order to connect with his followers.

“This death blow by AWS could not come at a worse time for Parler — a time when the company is surging with the potential of even more explosive growth in the next few days,” Groesbeck wrote. “Worse than the timing is the result — Parler has tried to find alternative companies to host it and they have fallen through. It has no other options.”

Parler also accused Amazon of breaching a contract that required 30 days notice before terminating service.

The Parler app saw its downloads jump by nearly a million between Election Day on Nov. 3 and Nov. 8, according to the complaint, and that trend continued after Trump’s account was banned from Twitter.

Parler’s lawyers asked for an immediate decision, saying that a judge’s delay “by even one day could also sound Parler’s death knell as President Trump and others move on to other platforms.”

In an interview on Monday morning, Parler CEO John Matze told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo: “The site is down. It’s just a black hole.”

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter. Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.