The Washington Examiner reported on Jan. 11 that within a day of the weekend when tech oligarchs joined forces to block the alternative social media platform Parler, a right-wing Web provider agreed to help Parler keep the social platform up and running.
Parler on Jan. 11 hosted its domain name and servers, which it registered, with Epik, an Internet web hosting company that specializes in hosting right-leaning websites. Another popular conservative social media platform, Gab, also uses Epik, and a web domain search shows that Parler is now hosted by Epik.
Epik issued a statement Jan. 11 saying it had not yet discussed future service offerings with Parler. Epik did acknowledge, however, that Parler is “working to meet Epik’s proposed modification terms.
Epik also defended Parler, saying it was treated unfairly compared to larger rivals Twitter and Facebook, and that the tech oligarchs had an “undeniable double standard” when it came to regulation and enforcement of content.
Earlier on Jan. 11, Amazon stopped providing cloud services to Parler, causing the site to go offline. Apple and Google also removed the Parler App from their app download platforms. These joint actions crippled the Parler platform, while the Parler app was still the most downloaded in the U.S. on Jan. 8.
Parler filed a lawsuit against Amazon on Jan. 11, claiming the tech giant’s actions were unfair, anti-competitive and politically motivated because Amazon did not take any action against Twitter in response to similarly violent content on its platform. Twitter is also a customer of Amazon Web Services, which hosts the site.
Parler claims in the lawsuit that without Amazon’s support, ” Parler is no longer operational because the social platform is not available online.” Parler also said that in order to host the Parler platform on Epik, significant changes to the site would be required, which would result in Parler’s site not being online for a “financially devastating period.
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