A Seattle federal court judge denied the request of Parler to issue an order requiring Amazon to reinstate its account with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

A federal court dealt a severe blow to the bid of Parler to stay online and continue providing a platform for its members to exchange information. The controversial social media platform failed to convince the judge to issue an order paving the way for the reinstatement of Parler's hosting account with Amazon's AWS.

   

Despite the setback, Parler vows to press on with its claim that Amazon, in removing the social media platform's account from AWS, violated antitrust law. Parler used similar arguments when it filed a case against the tech giant, though the company failed to convince the judge to issue an order for Amazon to reinstate the platform's account.

No Obligation To Reinstate

The ruling handed down by a federal judge Thursday states that Amazon does not have to reinstate its cloud hosting services for Parler. Many consider the Seattle federal court's ruling as a big blow to Parler, the controversial social media platform favored by right-wing extremists. According to some observers, Parler apparently failed to convince the court to order Amazon to reinstate the social media platform's account on the argument that terminating their hosting agreement unilaterally violates antitrust laws.

Earlier this month, Amazon's AWS suspended the account of Parler after the tech giant deemed the unbridled activities of users of the social media platform as a violation of its policy on safety and terrorism. Before this, Google and Apple also removed the Parler app from their respective online stores. This prompted the social media platform to turn to courts for help. However, Parler failed to convince the courts of the company's arguments, the latest being its request for reinstatement of its account on AWS denied by the judge.

No Moderation

Amazon explained it decided to terminate the AWS hosting account of Parler because it was not moderating posts from users who advocate violence. The social media giant did not accept the explanation and went on to file a case against Amazon. After more than a week of review on the arguments submitted, a judge of a federal court in Seattle denied its request for the court to order Amazon to reinstate the social media platform's hosting account. Parler has since returned online, though in a limited form with only a few posts visible on the site.

While the judge of a federal court in Seattle stopped short of dismissing Parler's case in its entirety, the written order appeared to pour cold water on the allegations made by the social media platform. In her decision denying the request of Parler for the court to order Amazon to reinstate the social media platform's AWS hosting, Judge Barbara Jacobs Rothstein said that Parler's assertions are without merit. "Parler failed to demonstrate that it's likely to prevail on the merits of any of its three claims," Judge Rothstein wrote in the ruling.