Social media platform Parler, which has gone dark after being cut off by major service providers that accused the app of failing to police violent content, may never get back online, said its CEO John Matze.
Bryan Wood reports.
Parler, a social media outlet favored by some supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump, may never return, company CEO told Reuters Wednesday.
Parler was banned by several platforms, Amazon among them, after last week's deadly siege on the Capitol by Trump supporters.
Parler, which had more than 12 million users, filed a lawsuit against Amazon on January 11 accusing it of making an illegal decision to shut it down to benefit Twitter.
Parler CEO John Matze said in an interview with Reuters Wednesday that the key to going back online was to settle the Amazon dispute.
"We're gonna fight and do everything possible to come back, as soon as possible... we filed a request to the state, that basically says we have to get back on Amazon because the damage of them taking us off is far beyond financial that we cannot recover unless they put us back." Amazon had said it had warned Parler about ugly and threatening language on its site, citing posts offensively describing former first lady Michelle Obama, and one that says "the only good democrat is a dead one.
Kill'em all." Parler defended the insults to Obama as hateful but protected by the Constitution.
The threat, the company said, is being investigated.
Parler said it had removed most problematic posts.
Separately, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent civil subpoenas to Amazon, Google and Apple, which have all dropped Parler from their app stores.
Paxton said he was seeking to learn if the companies sought to "eliminate speech they disagree with."
