Parler Sues Amazon for Antitrust Violation, Accuses it of Leaking News to BuzzFeed Before Informing Parler: ‘Motivated by Political Animus’

Parler on Monday filed suit against Amazon, alleging that it had violated antitrust laws and breached a contract between the companies by suddenly refusing to provide service and forcing the platform to go dark.

“When Twitter announced two evenings ago that it was permanently banning President Donald Trump from its platform, conservative users began to flee Twitter en masse for Parler,” the company wrote in the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle. “The exodus was so large that the next day, yesterday, Parler became the number one free app downloaded from Apple’s App Store.”

Twitter banned the president on Friday, the same day that Google and Apple announced they would ban Parler from their App stores until it developed a policy for moderating user content. Amazon announced Saturday that its web hosting division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), would suspend service for Parler by the end of Sunday, preventing existing users from logging into Parler through either its website or mobile application.

Parler said it was seeking a temporary restraining order against Amazon forcing it to resume service. It also accused Amazon of acting in cooperation with Twitter, violating antitrust law.

“AWS is violating … the Sherman Antitrust Act in combination with Defendant Twitter,” the company’s suit argued. “AWS is also breaching its contract with Parler, which requires AWS to provide Parler with a 30-day notice before terminating service, rather than the less than 30-hour notice AWS actually provided. Finally, AWS is committing intentional interference with prospective economic advantage given the millions of users expected to sign up in the near future.

“AWS’s decision to effectively terminate Parler’s account is apparently motivated by political animus,” attorneys for Parler wrote. It is also apparently designed to reduce competition in the microblogging services market to the benefit of Twitter.”

The company also accused Amazon of informing BuzzFeed of its decision far enough in advance that the website was able to publish a story about it before Amazon ever informed Parler.

“Strangely, the article with the letter was posted before Parler itself received the letter in an email, received at 7:19 pm PST, over an hour after the BuzzFeed article went online, meaning AWS leaked the letter to BuzzFeed before sending it to Parler,” the company added.

Parler said it had 12 million active users at the time of its termination, and that it had expected to add “millions more this week.”

“Worse than the timing is the result — Parler has tried to find alternative companies to host it and they have fallen through,” Parler noted. “It has no other options. Without AWS, Parler is finished as it has no way to get online.”