Amazon suspends Parler in latest hit to Trump defenders

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) – Social media platform Parler went down on Monday after Amazon became the latest provider to suspend its services to restrict communication of the supporters of US President Donald Trump.

Users trying to access the Parler website were greeted by a message saying: "This site can't be reached."

"Recently, we've seen a steady increase in this violent content on your website, all of which violates our terms," Amazon Web Services (AWS) said in an email obtained Saturday by BuzzFeed News. The suspension took effect on Sunday.

It was referring to last week’s Washington, D.C. riot that resulted in the deaths of five people when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building.

"It’s clear that Parler does not have an effective process to comply with the AWS terms of service," Amazon added.

Over the weekend Google Play and Apple's App Store took the same action and suspended the Parler app from their stores.

In a Saturday post, Parler CEO John Matze warned that the social network may be "unavailable on the internet for up to a week as we rebuild from scratch."

"This was a coordinated attack by the tech giants to kill competition in the market place," he wrote. "We were too successful too fast."

Alleging the further risk of violence, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram suspended Trump's account following the Capitol breach, a systematic censorship move slammed by millions of Republican citizens in the country.

Trump is accused by Democrats of inciting supporters to halt Congress from confirming President-elect Joe Biden's electoral victory.