Conservative social media haven Parler has been dropped from most online services, including Amazon Web Services, which hosted the site. According to The Hill, the Libertarian-founded company has appealed to the US District Court in Seattle to stop this blacklisting:
The 18-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, where Amazon is headquartered, accuses Amazon Web Services (AWS) of applying a politically motivated double standard to Parler in contrast to its treatment of the more mainstream social media giant Twitter.
"AWS's decision to effectively terminate Parler's account is apparently motivated by political animus," the lawsuit reads. "It is also apparently designed to reduce competition in the microblogging services market to the benefit of Twitter."
Multiple legal experts told The Hill that Parler's antitrust claim was unlikely to succeed. The lawsuit does not establish that Parler's suspension was part of an agreement between Amazon and Twitter, the rival social media company that Parler identified as the beneficiary of its shutdown.
I'm very much of the opinion that, while there's nothing legally or morally wrong with the blacklisting of Parler by every Big Tech company that essentially controls the Internet—the fact that these Big Tech companies have accumulated so much influence thanks to (mostly conservative) politicians who have repeatedly refused to reign in corporate power is a problem. But that problem has existed for quite some time now. The Parler and Trump bans don't set any new precedents beyond what already exists. If anything, the anti-antitrust crowd is finally getting to reap what they've sowed for so long.
Parler sues Amazon, asks court to reinstate platform [John Kruzel and Chris Mills Rodrigo / The Hill]
There's never been free speech on social media [Thom Dunn / Medium]
