Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Amazon hits back at Parler's antitrust lawsuit with extensive examples of its violent content, including death threats against politicians, tech CEOs, and BLM supporters

Amazon hits back at Parler's antitrust lawsuit with extensive examples of its violent content, including death threats against politicians, tech CEOs, and BLM supporters

Amazon cited Section 230 to dismiss Parler's claims it conspired with Twitter to hurt Parler's business by barring it from using Amazon Web Services.
Amazon on Tuesday filed its response to an antitrust suit brought against it by Parler, arguing that the social-media upstart's refusal to remove violent content from its platform violated its contract and that Parler had failed to prove any antitrust claims.

Parler sued Amazon on Monday after the tech giant booted the platform from its web-hosting service, Amazon Web Services, amid a public outcry over Parler's role in enabling far-right insurrectionists to organize and plan last week's attack at the US Capitol.

"This case is not about suppressing speech or stifling viewpoints. It is not about a conspiracy to restrain trade," Amazon argued in the court filing. "Instead, this case is about Parler's demonstrated unwillingness and inability to remove... content that threatens the public safety, such as by inciting and planning the rape, torture, and assassination of named public officials and private citizens."

Parler did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Amazon cited more than a dozen examples of content posted to Parler that it said violated Amazon's policies.

"We are going to fight in a civil War on Jan.20th, Form MILITIAS now and acquire targets," one post said, according to the document, while another said: "White people need to ignite their racial identity and rain down suffering and death like a hurricane."

Other Parler posts included death threats against prominent Democrats such as former President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Republicans including Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger; and tech executives including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google's parent company, Alphabet.

Parler users also targeted people of color, Black Lives Matter activists, Jews, teachers, the media, and professional sports leagues including the NBA, the NFL, the NHL, and MLB.

"There is no legal basis in AWS's customer agreements or otherwise to compel AWS to host content of this nature," Amazon said, adding that it had notified Parler "repeatedly" beginning in mid-November about content that violated the terms of the two companies' contract but that Parler "was both unwilling and unable" to remove it.

Amazon also pushed back against Parler's claims that Amazon's actions were politically motivated and violated antitrust laws by deliberately favoring Twitter, which also uses AWS, and not taking similar action against it.

"AWS does not host Twitter's feed, so of course it could not have suspended access to Twitter's content," Amazon said in the filing, noting that Twitter eventually blocked the violent content, while Parler refused to take similar steps.

Amazon also cited Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which gives companies that operate an "interactive computer service" the legal right to remove content as they see fit.

Parler rose to prominence in recent months as mainstream social-media sites have faced increasing pressure to crack down on hate speech, disinformation, and calls for violence.

Following the US presidential election in November, Trump supporters flocked to alternative social networks, including Parler, to plan election protests after Facebook and other sites barred groups that pushed baseless conspiracies. From November 3 to November 9, Parler was downloaded about 530,000 times in the US, according to data from Apptopia.

As a pro-Trump mob violently seized the US Capitol on Wednesday in an attack that left five dead, the rioters used Parler and other conservative-leaning social-media apps to organize. Apptopia told Business Insider that Parler downloads spiked to about 323% of their average weekly volume from October.

But as details have emerged about how some of the insurrectionists leveraged Parler ahead of last week's attack, major tech companies have faced pressure to cut ties. Apple and Google pulled the app from their app stores earlier this week, and Parler was forced to migrate its web hosting to Epik - a domain registrar known for hosting far-right extremist content - after being booted from AWS.

Expanded Coverage Module: capitol-siege-module
AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
OpenAI Launches GPT‑5, Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet
Brazilian President Lula says he’ll contact the leaders of BRICS states to propose a unified response to U.S. tariffs
US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to seek a breakthrough in the Ukraine war ahead of President Trump’s peace deadline
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Britain's Online Safety Law Sparks Outcry Over Privacy, Free Speech, and Mass Surveillance
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Karol Nawrocki Inaugurated as Poland’s President, Setting Stage for Clash with Tusk Government
US Charges Two Chinese Nationals for Illegal Nvidia AI Chip Exports
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
U.S. Tariff Policy Triggers Market Volatility Amid Growing Global Trade Tensions
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
German Finance Minister Criticizes Trump’s Attacks on Institutions
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
U.S. Tariffs Surge to Highest Levels in Nearly a Century Under Second Trump Term
Ong Beng Seng Pleads Guilty in Corruption Case Linked to Former Singapore Transport Minister
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
Italy Fines Shein One Million Euros for Misleading Sustainability Claims
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
Declassified Annex Links Soros‑Affiliated Officials and Clinton Campaign to ‘Russiagate’ Narrative
UK's Online Safety Law: A Front for Censorship
Parents Abandon Child at Barcelona Airport Over Passport Issue
Bus Driver Discovers Toddler Hidden in Suitcase in New Zealand
Switzerland Celebrates 734 Years of Independence Amid Global Changes
China Enforces Comprehensive Ban on Cryptocurrency Activities
Grok 4 Video plus Voice, can identify wildlife!
George Soros tells the World Economic Forum: "President Trump is a con man and the ultimate narcissist, who wants the world to revolve around him."
Hamas are STARVING the hostages.
The UK Does Not Have a ‘Far-Right’ Problem
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
JD Vance Warns Europe Faces “Civilizational Suicide” Over Open Borders and Speech Limits
Germany Enters Fiscal Crisis as Cabinet Approves €174 Billion in New Debt
Trump Administration Finalizes Broad Tariff Increases on Global Trade Partners
JD.com Launches €2.2 Billion Bid for German Electronics Retailer Ceconomy
Azerbaijan Proceeds with Plan to Legalise Casinos on Artificial Islands
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
Intel Reports Revenue Beats but Sees 81% Rise in Losses
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
×