In less than three days, social networking service Parler has gone from darling of the right wing to a has-been service that can no longer be accessed online. In response, the company is now suing its former Web host, Amazon, alleging the hosting giant intentionally colluded with rival social service Twitter to knock a competitor out of the market.
Amazon Web Services’ decision to cut Parler off “is apparently motivated by political animus,” Parler writes in its suit (PDF). “It is also apparently designed to reduce competition in the microblogging services market to the benefit of Twitter.”
Parler asks the court to grant a temporary restraining order against Amazon and “order AWS to maintain Parler’s account until further notice.” The company also seeks damages “in an amount to be determined at trial.”