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January 12, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – After the removal of social media platform Parler from the Google PlayStore and the Apple Store on smartphones and its subsequent removal by Amazon from its web hosting service, CEO John Matze told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he feared for his safety with “people threatening (his) life.”
“It is disgusting,” Matze said about the threats on his life. “I can’t go home tonight (…) This is not just, you know, our civil liberties. They can shut down a half a billion dollar company overnight.”
Parler was shut down by the tech giants Apple, Google, and Amazon on Saturday as the social media platform was performing exceptionally well on app stores, sitting in the number one spot for free app downloads:
#Parler is now the top free app: pic.twitter.com/fs6batOr5y
— Kristina Wong ���� (@kristina_wong) January 9, 2021
The popularity of the app rocketed after Twitter banned the account of President Donald Trump on its platform. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey celebrated the supplanting of Parler from its number one spot, a consequence of the Big Tech companies working in concert to suppress the app, in a tweet that drew condemnation from the Twittersphere.
Twitter has also been accused of purging numerous conservative accounts, as right-wing commentators began tweeting that they were losing followers by the thousands. PragerU said that they had “lost over 5K followers.” Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire also tweeted out that he lost “about 5,000 followers.”
Walsh laid the blame on Twitter itself, claiming that the social media platform is targeting conservative voices: “It’s clear that Twitter is wiping out conservative accounts. That’s why your follower counts are going down. This is the biggest purge we’ve seen, and not the last.”
A Twitter spokesman told the Daily Caller News Foundation that, “in line with our policy on Coordinated Harmful Activity,” and as a result of “the renewed potential for violence,” Twitter will take “strong enforcement action,” and will “permanently suspend accounts that are solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content.”
Commenting on the removal of Parler from its App Store, Apple claimed that Parler allowed “threats of violence and illegal activity” and “has not taken adequate measures to address the proliferation of these threats to people’s safety.” Matze noted his surprise at the recent shutdown as he told Carlson he had received no notification from Apple, Google, or Amazon, who canceled his social media service “without any prior warning.”
“We didn’t get a notice from Google; we read it online in the news first,” Matze explained. “That is shocking. And then after they set that example, you know, we get email after email. It’s almost like you’re just waiting, who’s going to be next dumping us.” He anticipates that “within 24 hours our (Parler’s) email will be shut off too.”
Matze professed to not going down without a fight, biting back at the companies responsible for Parler’s shutdown: “We will be back eventually because we are not going to give up.” He doubled down on this promise, saying “we’re going to do it. We’re going to be back online one day. And hopefully soon, as soon as possible. But this is a real challenge. We have to build our own infrastructure — our own everything in order to do it.”
Commenting on the difficulty of re-establishing the business online, Matze noted that, without the availability of Big Tech platforms, it may take some time to implement a new infrastructure. “(S)oon is difficult, you know,” he said, explaining that, in talks with server providers, “right at the last minute they just bailed (…) someone said something: we can’t host you.”
In response to Amazon removing the social media platfom from its web hosting service, Parler is suing Amazon. The lawsuit states that Amazon Web Services terminated Parler’s account based on political hostilities, violated antitrust laws, and did not fulfil its contractual obligation to give Parler 30 days’ notice of termination.