Why does everyone talk about parlors?
On Friday evening, two days after pro-Trump mobs stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, Twitter shut down President Trump's personal account (opens in new tab), and Parler leapt to the top spot (opens in new tab) in the app store. The social networking service, which markets itself as "the social network that guarantees free speech" (opens in new tab), has become an alternative to Twitter (opens in new tab) for conservatives and far-right extremists and was recently used to organize the deadly riots on Capitol Hill (opens in new Open in new tab), which was reportedly used to organize the riots at the Capitol. In response to these reports, Apple and Google announced that they would remove Parler from their respective app stores.
"To protect user safety in Google Play, our longstanding policy requires apps that display user-generated content to have a moderation policy and enforcement to remove egregious content, like posts inciting violence," NBC News ( opens in new tab), a Google spokesperson said in a statement Friday. 'All developers agree to these terms and we have reminded Parler of this clear policy in recent months. We are aware of ongoing postings on the Parler app that attempt to incite ongoing violence in the United States."
Apple also agrees to these policies.
Apple also suspended Parler from its app store after threatening to remove Parler (open in new tab) 24 hours ago if it did not submit updates and a moderation improvement plan.
"We have always supported diverse viewpoints being represented in the App Store, but threats of violence and illegal activity have no place on our platform. Parler has not taken adequate steps to address the proliferation of these threats to people's safety. We have suspended Parler from the App Store until Parler resolves these issues."
[8Amazon is now threatening to follow Apple and Google in removing its own cloud service running Parler, BuzzFeed reports (opens in new tab), Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Sunday, January 10 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST), and will no longer provide cloud services to the company. This means that parlors will need to find a new cloud provider to host their sites by this time.
Since its inception in 2018, Parler has been a hub (open in new tab) for QAnon conspiracy theorists, Proud Boys members, Holocaust deniers, and white supremacists. Republican politicians, including recently elected QAnon conspiracy theorist Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green (open in new tab), have said that Parler's ban from Apple, Google, and Amazon is another attempt by Big Tech to censor conservatives on its platform and "another private American They claim it is another so-called attempt to "hurt corporations. John Matze (open in new tab), who co-founded Parler with Jared Thomson and conservative donor Rebekah Mercer (open in new tab), said (open in new tab) that this is a "coordinated attack by the tech giants to kill competition in the market." Meanwhile, users continue to threaten violence against politicians (opens in new tab), and more plans are being made on the platform (opens in new tab) ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20.
While the future of the parlor is unknown, Twitter remains a top priority for conservatives. It is possible that more conservatives will either leave Twitter to boycott the president's suspension or remain on Twitter to complain that they are losing followers (opens in new tab) and distract from the events of January 6.
This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
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