Washington, D.C. — Social media platform Parler filed a lawsuit against Amazon, claiming the company violated antitrust law.
Amazon owns a considerable block of the world’s server space under Amazon Web Services Inc. Parler and Twitter both utilize this service to host their social media platforms.
Amazon suspended Parler’s account on Sunday. They claimed they were not confident Parler could police its platform for content that threatens or encourages violence against others. However, the complaint alleges one of the top trending tweets on Twitter Friday was “Hang Mike Pence.”
In the complaint, Parler alleges that Amazon violated the Sherman Antitrust Act “in combination with Defendant Twitter.” Parler also alleged that Amazon broke its contract with Parler.
Thus, AWS is violating Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act in combination with Defendant Twitter. AWS is also breaching it contract with Parler, which requires AWS to provide Parler with a thirty-day notice before terminating service, rather than the less than thirty-hour notice AWS actually provided. Finally, AWS is committing intentional interference with prospective economic advantage given the millions of users expected to sign up in the near future.
Parler LLC v. Amazon Web Services Inc, January 11, 2020
Many people, including President Donald Trump, turned to Parler in response to Twitter suspending Trump from the platform.
The suit asks for a Temporary Restraining Order against Amazon Web Services to prevent a complete shutdown of Parler.
As of now, Parler remains shut down.
More from America’s Citizen Press
Will ANY laws apply now?