A judge Thursday denied Parler’s request that a federal court order Amazon to reinstate its services to the social media giant.
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Amazon doesn’t have to keep hosting Parler on its cloud service, a judge ruled in a Seattle federal court Thursday. The ruling is a blow to Parler, a social media platform popular with right-wing extremists, which went offline earlier this month when Amazon Web Services suspended Parler’s account. Amazon said it took the action because Parler wasn’t moderating posts from users advocating violence. The site since has returned online in a limited form.
The ruling Thursday rejected Parler’s request that the judge order Amazon to reinstate its services to the social media company. Amazon said in a previous court filing that there was no legal precedent for a court to order a company to host content that promoted violence.
Parler’s request was part of a larger lawsuit alleging that Amazon violated contract and antitrust law for withdrawing its services. The judge didn’t dismiss the case entirely Thursday, but she cast cold water on Parler’s allegations in her written order. Parler has “failed to demonstrate that it is likely to prevail on the merits of any of its three claims,” Judge Barbara Jacobs Rothstein wrote in her ruling.
Parler didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. If Parler goes keeps pursuing the lawsuit, both companies will have a chance to collect additional evidence from each other to bolster their claims.
