Parler, the alternative microblogging platform favored by conservatives and supporters of US President Donald Trump, has been slapped with sanctions by Amazon, Apple, and Google and has found itself without an internet home.
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Pointing to participants using the app to coordinate last week's riots in Washington, all the three tech giants have booted Parler from their platforms in a span of 24 hours, Buzzfeed reported.
Amazon said it will remove Parler from its cloud hosting service, Amazon Web Services, on Sunday evening. Google on Friday suspended Parler from its Play Store, citing posts inciting violence and demanding "robust" content moderation from the app. Apple made a similar demand and gave the service 24 hours to submit a detailed moderation plan.
The move followed a decision by Twitter to ban Trump's account permanently, while Facebook and Instagram suspended his accounts until after the transition of power is complete, on Jan. 20. Both said they will revisit the suspension once President-elect Joe Biden takes office, hinting it may become permanent.
This means that unless Parler's website and app find a new hosting provider, it may become unavailable for new downloads on the world's main mobile phone app stores.
In a statement, Google said that "for us to distribute an app through Google Play, we do require that apps implement robust moderation for egregious content. In light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat, we are suspending the app's listings from the Play Store until it addresses these issues."
Apple said, "Content that threatens the well-being of others or is intended to incite violence or other lawless acts has never been acceptable on the App Store."
Apple gave Parler 24 hours to "remove all objectionable content from your app ... as well as any content referring to harm to people or attacks on government facilities now or at any future date."
Parler CEO John Matze said that Apple was applying standards to Parler that it did not apply to itself.
Matze, who describes himself as a libertarian, founded Parler in 2018 as a "free-speech driven" alternative to mainstream platforms but began courting right-leaning users as prominent supporters of Trump moved there.
"Apparently they believe Parler is responsible for all user-generated content on Parler," Matze said. "Therefor [sic] by the same logic, Apple must be responsible for all actions taken by their phones. Every car bomb, every illegal cell phone conversation, every illegal crime committed on an iPhone, Apple must also be responsible for," he wrote. "Standards not applied to Twitter, Facebook or even Apple themselves, apply to Parler."
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