U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle said Parler
was unlikely to prove Amazon breached its contract or violated antitrust law by
suspending service on Jan. 10, and that it was “not a close call.”
She also forcefully rejected the suggestion that the public
interest would be served by a preliminary injunction requiring Amazon Web
Services to “host the kind of abusive, violent content at issue in this case,
particularly in light of the recent riots at the U.S. Capitol.”
“That event,” she added, “was a tragic reminder that
inflammatory rhetoric can – more swiftly and easily than many of us would have
hoped – turn a lawful protest into a violent insurrection.”
Parler was not immediately available for comment.
“We welcome the court’s careful ruling,” an Amazon
spokeswoman said in a statement. “This was not a case about free speech. It was
about a customer that consistently violated our terms of service.”
Amazon said Parler ignored repeated warnings to effectively
moderate the growth on its website of violent content, which included calls to
assassinate prominent Democratic politicians, leading business executives and
members of the media.
Researchers have said far-right groups at the Capitol had a
vigorous online presence on platforms including Parler, where they spread
violent rhetoric.
Parler said there was no evidence apart from anecdotes in
the press that it had a role in inciting the riots, and that it was unfair to
deprive millions of law-abiding Americans a platform for free speech.
It also said Amazon had no right to threaten its
“extinction” by pulling the plug, and had been motivated by “political animus”
to benefit Twitter Inc, a larger Amazon client that Parler said did not censor
violent content targeting conservatives.
Rothstein rejected that argument, saying Parler had merely
raised the “specter of preferential treatment” for Twitter.
Many supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump favor
Parler, which has claimed it had more than 12 million users.
Parler remains largely offline after being dropped by
Seattle-based Amazon and the app stores of Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google
following the Washington unrest.
Those companies also cited Parler’s record of policing
violent content.
Parler Chief Executive Officer John Matze told Reuters on
Jan. 13 that Parler may be offline for good, but later pledged it would return
stronger.
Matze and his family were forced to “go into hiding” after
receiving death threats, his lawyer said on Jan. 15.
A static version of Parler’s website recently returned,
including a notice saying Parler was having technical difficulties, and a
handful of posts from people like Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin.
Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Wernick said on Tuesday that
Parler was posting comments on behalf of “friends who reached out.”
The site’s internet protocol address is owned by DDos-Guard,
which is controlled by two Russian men and provides protection from distributed
denial-of-service attacks, according to infrastructure expert Ronald Guilmette.
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