Parler Banned From Google Apple App Stores And Amazon Web Services For Violent Rhetoric During Capitol Riots

Following the events of last week’s storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump in Washington D.C., the microblogging and social networking platform Parler has faced increasing scrutiny from big tech companies in recent days.

Late last week and into the weekend, Google, Apple and Amazon have each suspended or banned Parler from their app stores and web-hosting services citing various reasons such as inciting violence or failing to curb such online discussion.

On Friday, Google was the first major company to take action against the free-speech social platform that has gained notoriety in recent years as a haven for online personalities that have been banned by mainstream platforms, including many conservative, far-right or alt-right users who have flocked to Parler since it was launched in mid-2020.

About the ban, Google said its reasoning for removing Parler from the Google Play Store stems from its policy on apps displaying user-generated content to have moderation in place to prevent violent rhetoric from spreading.

A Google spokesperson said, “We're aware of continued posting in the Parler app that seeks to incite ongoing violence in the U.S. We recognize that there can be reasonable debate about content policies and that it can be difficult for apps to immediately remove all violative content, but 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.”

Although Android allows third-party app stores to continue hosting Parler, meaning users can still access the app, the ban is a major blow to its accessibility, and merely the first of the platform’s challenges from tech companies in the wake of recent events.

On Saturday, Apple followed suit by similarly suspending Parler from the App Store for its role in hosting violent rhetoric, releasing a statement that read, “We have suspended Parler from the App Store until they resolve these issues.” The suspension came after Apple reportedly gave Parler 24 hours to submit a moderation plan to curb user content that was found on Parler to coordinate Wednesday’s riot.

(An excerpt from Apple's letter to Parler regarding the app's removal from its store.)

Amazon then took action against Parler over the weekend when it suspended the service from its Amazon Web Services (AWS) division, effectively taking the site offline until a new host is found or its issues resolved with AWS. The move comes after workers demanded Amazon drop the app.

Enough is enough. Amazon hosts Parler on @awscloud.

As Amazon workers, we demand Amazon deny Parler services until it removes posts inciting violence, including at the Presidential inauguration.

We cannot be complicit in more bloodshed and violent attacks on our democracy.

— Amazon Employees For Climate Justice (@AMZNforClimate) January 9, 2021

Amazon stated that Parler also violated its terms of service by failing to moderate violent content according to an email that a spokesperson confirmed. The suspension went into effect Sunday night at 11:59 p.m. PST.

(An excerpt from Amazon's letter to Parler regarding the ban.)

The news surrounding Parler’s shutdown has been widely discussed online, appearing in numerous posts and threads on Reddit, Twitter and many other platforms. The move also comes in the wake of Trump being suspended or banned from a range of social media last week for his involvement in Wednesday’s events.

Critics of the move to shut down Parler have expressed that the effort was part of big tech’s bias against conservatives, who many believe want to stifle right-leaning voices. Parler CEO John Matze reiterated this sentiment following the actions of Google, Apple and Amazon, who said it was a coordinated effort to kill their platform that competes in their market. Parler also stated today that it has plans to sue Amazon over the ban.

(Parler CEO John Matze's response to the bans from his post on the platform.)

“This was a coordinated attack by the tech giants to kill competition in the marketplace,” Matze said. “You can expect the war on competition and free speech to continue, but don’t count us out.”

Also commenting on the ban, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released a statement and warned against the “unchecked power” of big tech companies, who said de-platforming in such a manner had the potential to discriminate against political speech on social media.

The ACLU in NYT on why the union of Silicon Valley monopolies -- Apple, Google and Amazon -- to remove Parler from the internet is so problematic. While ACLU is largely just a liberal pressure group now, they still have some real civil liberties lawyers:https://t.co/wgBlAnjyZX pic.twitter.com/3twrrwD5Rq

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 11, 2021

Before being taken down, a researcher on Twitter under the username @donk_enby has been archiving posts from last Wednesday related to the attack on the Capitol to preserve potential evidence of Parler users involvement in the riots.

great job, everyone pic.twitter.com/22gooTH4sl

— crash override (@donk_enby) January 11, 2021

The posts include user location data, which @donk_enby hopes will create a public record for researchers to use now that the service has been taken offline from AWS. So far, over 56 TB have been collected, which she said makes up around 99 percent of the content from that timeframe.

(Jake Angeli, the "Viking Protester" and "Q Shaman," one of the many individuals arrested following the storming of the Capitol.)

Since last week, law enforcement has made numerous efforts to track down participants of the riot, including notable individuals such as Jake Angeli (the Q Shaman) and more than 20 others thus far who have been arrested.