Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Exclusive: Parler CEO says social media app, favored by Trump supporters, may not return

Published 01/13/2021, 04:19 PM
Updated 01/13/2021, 08:15 PM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A man wearing a "Trump 2020" sweatshirt uses his mobile phone during a "Stop the Steal" protest outside Milwaukee Central Count the day after Milwaukee County finished counting absentee ballots, in Milwaukee

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A man wearing a "Trump 2020" sweatshirt uses his mobile phone during a "Stop the Steal" protest outside Milwaukee Central Count the day after Milwaukee County finished counting absentee ballots, in Milwaukee

By Elizabeth Culliford and Jeffrey Dastin

(Reuters) - Social media platform Parler, which has gone dark after being cut off by major service providers that accused the app of failing to police violent content, may never get back online, said its CEO John Matze.

As a procession of business vendors severed ties with the two-year-old site following the storming of the U.S. Capitol last week, Matze said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday that he does not know when or if it will return.

"It could be never," he said. "We don't know yet."

After this story was published, Matze added: "I am an optimist. It may take days, it may take weeks but Parler will return and when we do we will be stronger."

Matze said that Parler was talking to more than one cloud computing service but refused to disclose names, citing the likelihood of harassment for the companies involved. He said the best thing would be if Parler could get back on Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN).

Parler, which claims it had over 12 million users, on Monday filed a lawsuit against Amazon's cloud computing division.

Amazon cut off the social media platform, which styles itself as a "free-speech" space and is favored by supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump, from its servers this weekend for failing to effectively moderate violent content.

In the interview, Matze said its relationship with Amazon appeared to deteriorate overnight and without much warning, an assessment that Amazon disputes in legal filings.

As late as this summer, Amazon invited Parler to join an initiative to connect it with potential investors, Matze said, which was independently confirmed by a source who characterized the offer as standard for startup customers.

Amazon later ended the program and did not secure funding for Parler, the source said. Matze said the company did not need more funding at the time.

By November, however, Amazon had received reports that Parler hosted threatening content in what it says breached the companies' agreement, according to an Amazon legal filing. Amazon flagged over 100 examples to a Parler executive, such as content exhorting people to "Form MILITIAS now and acquire targets," the filing said.

In another court filing Wednesday, Parler said that Amazon had not provided proof that the platform was used to incite and organize the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol siege. It called Amazon's termination of its services "catastrophic."

Disinformation researchers have said far-right groups that appeared at the riot maintained a vigorous online presence on alternative platforms including Parler, where they spread violent rhetoric ahead of the unrest.

'HARD TO KEEP TRACK'

Amazon was not alone in taking action against the social media company. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc's Google also kicked Parler from their app stores.

Matze said, "It's hard to keep track of how many people are telling us that we can no longer do business with them."

He said Parler had also been booted from online payments service Stripe and had lost its Scylla Enterprise database as well as access to Twilio (NYSE:TWLO) Inc and Slack Technologies (NYSE:WORK) Inc, a popular workplace messaging app. He also said it had been ditched by American Express Co (NYSE:AXP), but the company said it did not have a direct merchant relationship with Parler.

ScyllaDB and Twilio said Parler violated their policies over violent content. Slack and Stripe did not immediately respond to Reuters requests to comment.

Matze said that Parler relies on about 600 paid and unpaid "jurors" to make decisions in small groups on problematic content.

He said he thought Parler had done a good job on moderation but was trying to be more proactive. After vendors told the platform there was a problem, Parler had put an algorithm in place by the end of Sunday to flag problematic posts, he said.

Amazon Web Services did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment about the algorithm.

As of Wednesday, Matze said there had been no changes to investors in Parler. Hedge fund investor Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah Mercer and conservative commentator Dan Bongino are investors of the service.

Latest comments

Well look at the hypocrisy - https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/01/06/trump-riot-twitter-parler-proud-boys-boogaloos-antifa-qanon/6570794002/ " Violent rhetoric including threats against elected officials and police officers flooded all social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube, not just online forums popular with extremists." Alright, let's shutdown Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube, let's get to it ,right? (back pedal ensues...)
Big tech bowing to their new overlords.  Amazon, Google, and Apple could have easily ditched Parlor before if their reasoning is correct, but with the Democrats holding a majority in the senate it's obvious they are caving to them.  If the Republicans held the senate they definitely would have though twice.  They've all become the Democrats' propaganda machines. Not everyone will approve of what others say, but free speech is imperative as it helps people to counter bad ideas, where as censorship does not.
They dumped it after an armed fascist insurrection against our legislature and encouraged by the President as well as users of the app. This comes as a shock to you?
Republican for life. No deprogramming here! PB
 - stop with the drama, they were armed? How many? How many politicians did they manage to *** If that was an armed group. Everyone would be dead. Did you not see the grandma walking aimlessly through the capitol? This is a typical protest, how about checking in the gilets jaunes in France. Anyhow, give the pearl clutching a rest...
This very not so clever man ruined his company by profiting from maga nonsence. What a bad business strategy. Should have sticked to decency. Beter for long term profit. Could have been a great platform.
Horrible news for the stockholders. They should have know better.
Parler isnt publicly traded pal. Nonsence, sticked, beter? Proper english much?
doesnt need to be public to have shareholders lol
finally, a true advantage of having tech monopolies. I love AWS.
Just wait til they sensor something you like. Thats what you libs dont get. This will all flip to affect you soon
nothing entitles anyone to use Amazon’s platform. Sounds like youre begging for regulation and the government to tell businesses who they do business with.
Big F to Amazon. Middle finger to them. Bezos ***** Cancelled my subscription yesterday
do the world a favour and stop breathing
 How'd they ever find your brain to wash it ? You're just another trumpist bawbag.
And the share price gives a rats *******about Your subscription 😂🤣😂
Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.