The “free speech” platform Parler, popular among conservatives, is suing Amazon again, accusing the Big Tech company of attempting to destroy its business. Amazon suspended the site from its web-hosting services, forcing the social network offline for a month.
Amazon severed ties with Parler after the Jan 6 riot at the US Capitol. The tech giant claimed Parler played a role in the riot for failing to moderate harmful content by users on its site, a claim that was later contradicted by research. As a result of Amazon removing it from its web-hosting servers, Parler went dark for about a month.
On Tuesday, Parler voluntarily dismissed a previous lawsuit against Amazon. The court had given them until Tuesday to file an amended complaint. In the previous lawsuit, Parler argued that there was no evidence that it helped incite the Jan 6 riot but the court still refused to mandate Amazon to resume its services to Parler.
Parler has now filed a new lawsuit against Amazon in a court in Washington. The lawsuit is seeking several damages, including triple damages for anti-competitive practices.
We obtained a copy of the lawsuit for you here.
“When companies are this big, it’s easy to be a bully,” the lawsuit states. The suit also describes Parler as “a victim of Amazon’s efforts to destroy an up-and-coming technology company through deceptive, defamatory, anticompetitive, and bad faith conduct.”
Like in the previous lawsuit, Parler is accusing Amazon of shutting it down to benefit its new client and Parler’s competitor, Twitter. The free-speech platform is also accusing Amazon of a variety of contractual violations.
An Amazon spokesperson dismissed the new lawsuit as having no merit, pointing out that the company “provides its services to customers across the political spectrum.”
Parler relaunched about two weeks ago, after finding a new web-hosting provider, SkySilk. The Los Angeles-based web services provider claims to offer private cloud infrastructure, which Parler has described as “sustainable, independent technology.”
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