Parler, a social media platform favoured by some supporters of US President Donald Trump, may never get back online again, according to its CEO John Matze.

After Amazon pulled the plug on Parler following the January 6 riot by Trump supporters at the Capitol, Mr Matze said in an interview with Reuters that he was unsure if the app, which had more than 12 million users, would ever go back online.

“It could be never,” he said.

Parler filed a lawsuit against Amazon on January 11, accusing it of making an illegal decision to shut it down to benefit Twitter.
Mr Matze had previously described the move as “a co-ordinated attack by the tech giants to kill competition in the marketplace”.

In its filing, Parler argued that Amazon Web Services breached its contract by cutting it off. Amazon earlier had said it had warned Parler about ugly and threatening language on its site.

Amazon cited posts on Parler with vile language, for example, used to describe former first lady Michelle Obama, as well as postings such as “the only good democrat is a dead one. Kill’em all”.

Parler defended the insults to Obama as hateful but covered by the US Constitution. The threat, the respondent said, “has been passed on to our regulator contact for investigation”.

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In its filing on Wednesday (US time), Parler said it had removed most problematic posts.

A second exhibit showed Parler postings that threatened specific acts of violence against people, some of whom are named while others are described as “liberals” or black, gay, Jewish or transgender.

“We explained that given the events at the US Capitol Building and the threats regarding the upcoming inauguration, we had real concern about this content leading to more violence,” an unnamed Amazon executive said in a statement included with the exhibits, referring to Mr Biden’s inauguration on January 20.

-with agencies