Progressives Who Desperately Want to Censor Parler Just Got Some Bad News
Progressives Who Desperately Want to Censor Parler Just Got Some Bad News
They tried, and it looks like they may have failed. Social media company Parler, which has been under attack from the far-left for not censoring conservatives, seems to have found a new home after Amazon Web Services decided to stop hosting the company’s site.
The Washington Examiner reported:
On Monday, Parler registered its domain and server to be hosted by Epik, an internet webhosting company known for working with right-leaning websites. Gab, another social media platform popular with conservatives, also uses Epik. A web domain search shows that Parler is now registered with Epik.
Last week, a group of Big Tech companies colluded to destroy Parler, claiming that the platform contributed to the riot that occurred at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6. Google and Apple both removed the social media app from their stores only days before Amazon announced that it was booting the site from its hosting services. The collaboration came amid a widespread purge of conservative accounts on Twitter. (See: The Purge Is Here: Twitter Banning Influencers on Right, Removing Followers)
Epik released a statement on Monday explaining that it had not discussed providing hosting services to the social media company, but stated that Parler was “working on satisfying the requested terms placed upon them.”
The company also defended Parler, arguing that it was not being treated fairly by Big Tech companies like Twitter and Facebook. It said these entities operate by an “undeniable double standard” when it comes to their enforcement of their rules. Parler’s website has been down since Monday since it does not have a host.
The social media company also filed a lawsuit against Amazon in what could be a landmark case in the realm of online censorship.
From The Examiner:
Parler sued Amazon on Monday, alleging that the tech giant’s actions are unfair, anti-competitive, and politically motivated because Amazon has not taken any action against Twitter for similar violent content on its platform. Twitter is also a client of Amazon Web Services business for hosting websites.
The lawsuit claimed that without Amazon’s support, “Parler is finished as it has no way to get online.” The company stated that switching to an entirely new service provider would require significant changes to its website. This would cause the site to be offline for a “financially devastating period.”
Epik has been the subject of scorn from the far-left before this fiasco. They criticize the company for hosting sites that publish racist content. Most notably was their outrage at the company’s decision to host another social media platform called Gab, which was another service they sought to destroy in similar fashion.
Vice, a left-wing activist media site, wasn’t too happy about the new development. “Epik is already known as the internet savior of the far-right due to its support of other social media sites associated with the far-right,” they wrote.
The Southern Poverty Law Center also complained about the webhosting company. In 2019, they published a report claiming that despite not being overtly racist in its mission statement, had started “cornering the market on websites where hate speech is thriving.”
Indeed, the service has hosted some rather unsavory entities like white supremacist site The Daily Stormer and some Neo-Nazi podcast. But the company does host other more mainstream sites as well. The company, which is based in Seattle, argues that it hosts these sites due to its commitment to the idea of free speech.
Still, anyone who has been paying attention knows that the far-left and its adherents in the activist media have been waiting a long time to shut Parler down. Progressives have railed against the company, complaining that it became an echo chamber for conservatives who were fed up at the biased censorship at Twitter and Facebook. Of course, it never crossed their minds to consider the fact that their politically-motivated silencing of conservative accounts made platforms like Gab and Parler necessary in the first place.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The left did not try to destroy Parler and Gab because they had anything to do with political violence from the right. They are not as concerned over conspiracy theories as they might want us to think. Their motivation is clear: They do not want conservatives to express their views on platforms they do not control.
For the time being, it seems that they have failed in their attempt to wipe Parler off the internet. But there might still be other ways they can target Epik. They have already discussed going after email providers and financial institutions that do business with platforms they don’t like. The battle is far from over.
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