Parler sues Amazon for alleged antitrust conspiracy designed to minimize competition to Twitter's benefit and for breach of contract after the e-commerce giant expelled the conservative social media site from AWS.

Conservative social media site Parler hauled Amazon to court, alleging antitrust conspiracy and breach of contract, after the Seattle-based Internet giant expelled it from Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers, causing the beleaguered site to go offline. Parler said Amazon, in an alleged act of political vendetta, removed the conservative social media site from its servers, which is tantamount to breach of contract. The social media site also alleged that Amazon committed an antitrust conspiracy that will greatly benefit Twitter.

   

Parler filed the lawsuit today in the U.S. Western District Court. In the complaint, the beleaguered conservative social media site said that Amazon's decision to terminate the account of Parler smacks of political vengeance. The social media site's antitrust conspiracy theory apparently stems from the earlier action of Twitter to suspend the account of several prominent political figures after the microblogging platform deemed their tweets as inciting violence. Conservative politicians then turned to Parler and used the platform to let their message out. Consequently, Amazon removed the conservative social media site from its servers, in an alleged antitrust conspiracy to minimize competition and breach of contract.

"AWS's decision to effectively terminate Parler's account is apparently motivated by political animus. It is also apparently designed to reduce competition in the microblogging services market to the benefit of Twitter," Parler stated in its complaint. When sought for comment, Amazon denied the conservative social media site's allegations of antitrust conspiracy as its reason for removing Parler from its servers. The e-commerce giant also denied it committed a breach of contract. According to Amazon, it gave Parler a 24-hour notice that it will suspend Parler's account if the conservative social media continues to play host to dozens of messages that appear to incite violence.

As regards allegations of "political animus," Amazon said its actions are devoid of political color as it based its actions on the company's terms and conditions in removing Parler from AWS servers. Amazon cited one post, which states "we need to start systematically [sic] assassinating [sic] #liberal leaders, liberal activists, #blm leaders, and supporters," as an example of an alleged violation of its rules on safety and violence. Parler, however, said it already removed such posts but Amazon still went ahead and removed the site from its servers. Aside from the breach of contract allegations, the conservative social media site also charged the e-commerce giant with antitrust conspiracy designed to minimize competition in the microblogging sector and protect the interests of Twitter. Parler is asking the judge to issue Amazon an order restoring the social media site's access to AWS.