Parler Deplatformed
Jan. 11th, 2021 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerAfter the violent anti-democracy riot at the US Capitol last Wednesday, Twitter, Facebook, and a few other social media companies booted President Trump off their platforms for violating their terms of service against inciting and glorifying violence.
"We'll just go to Parler," a lot of people said. Parler is an alternative social media platform that has billed itself for months now as the last bastion of free speech— speech free of restrictions against planning violence and crime, that is. It's been gathering a base of politically conservative users who enjoy being able to share violent content & threats without fear of having their accounts suspended or terminated. On Thursday, when Twitter and Facebook booted Trump, Parler's free app was the #1 most downloaded app on Apple's iTunes store.
Parler's popularity surge didn't last long, though. On Friday Google removed the app from its Google Play store for violating its policy against encouraging violence. On Saturday Apple did the same with its iTunes store. Sunday Amazon announced that at 11:59pm it would shut down Parler's servers in its AWS hosting service. Amazon carried through on that threat, and since 12:00am Monday morning Parler has been completely offline. The company currently has no credible plan for restoring its service.
"We'll just go to Parler," a lot of people said. Parler is an alternative social media platform that has billed itself for months now as the last bastion of free speech— speech free of restrictions against planning violence and crime, that is. It's been gathering a base of politically conservative users who enjoy being able to share violent content & threats without fear of having their accounts suspended or terminated. On Thursday, when Twitter and Facebook booted Trump, Parler's free app was the #1 most downloaded app on Apple's iTunes store.
Parler's popularity surge didn't last long, though. On Friday Google removed the app from its Google Play store for violating its policy against encouraging violence. On Saturday Apple did the same with its iTunes store. Sunday Amazon announced that at 11:59pm it would shut down Parler's servers in its AWS hosting service. Amazon carried through on that threat, and since 12:00am Monday morning Parler has been completely offline. The company currently has no credible plan for restoring its service.
no subject
Date: 2021-01-13 04:41 pm (UTC)