Amazon turned off Parler’s servers last night, disconnecting Parler.com from the internet, and with it the social media accounts of almost 20 million people.
Parler CEO also reported (yesterday AM on Fox Business) that attorneys, email, and other suppliers are refusing to supply his company. Although he said that transferring the company's software and data could be done in about 12 hours, today he wrote that "We will likely be down longer than expected" because of the time it takes to find vendors who are willing to supply the company. Parler investor Dan Bongino said today that "Parler will be back by the end of the week."
The Jan 6 violence and lawbreaking was reportedly organized on Facebook, but Facebook continues uninterrupted.
I estimate that Parler has 20 million members (no bots), as compared to less than 60 million US accounts on Twitter.
This outrageous situation is best handled by the market, without government interference. To the 20 million people temporarily disconnected, I say: do not be gullible enough to think that government bureaucrats or politicians represent your interests any better than the big tech employees. Many of them have built followings on incumbent social media and do not want to work to build that again. Any new regulations for social media will be written by allies of the incumbents.
[This is not an official Parler communication. I have no financial interest in Parler.]
Where is the government interference? You explain that Amazon decided to shut down the servers and that other private enterprises are choosing not to do business with Parler. That is the free market at work!
ReplyDeleteS. Tyler, I don't think he's calling it government interference, just offering a forewarning for those who think the government *should* get involved, but I could be wrong.
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