Parler, a social media app that was shut down last month by tech giants, said Monday that it has secured new computer servers and resumed operations.
“We are off of the big tech platform, so that we can consider ourselves safe and secure for the future,” Parler CEO Mark Meckler said in an interview with Just The News.
Meckler said the platform will employ artificial intelligence and “human editors to police for illegal speech that violates its service agreement but otherwise is remaining true to its free speech, no censorship roots,” the site said.
Dan Bongino, a prominent Parler user and shareholder, applauded the move, saying, “Cancel culture came for us, and hit us with all they had. Yet we couldn’t be kept down. We’re back, and we’re ready to resume the struggle for freedom of expression, data sovereignty, and civil discourse. We thank our users for their loyalty during this incredibly challenging time.”
On Jan. 11, the social media platform, which is used by many right-leaning voices since its founding in 2018, went dark as Amazon banned the site from its cloud hosting service.
“Amazon suspended Parler from its Amazon Web Services (AWS) unit, for violating AWS’s terms of services by failing to effectively deal with a steady increase in violent content, according to an email by an AWS Trust and Safety team to Parler, seen by Reuters,” the news agency reported. “An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the letter was authentic.”
Amazon said Parler presented a “very real risk to public safety.”
Parler has been hit from all sides as top tech companies seek to shut it down. Google suspended the site from its app store Friday, saying Parler had failed to moderate “egregious content” posted by users.
Apple also removed the site from its app store.
“We have suspended Parler from the App Store until they resolve these issues,” Apple said in a statement Saturday. Apple had given Parler 24 hours to submit a detailed plan to moderate its content, claiming that users used the service to coordinate Wednesday’s riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Then-CEO John Matze ripped Amazon, Google, and Apple, saying the tech giants coordinated to shut down conservatives. Twitter last week permanently suspended then-President Donald Trump from the platform, saying he had violated its terms.
“This was a coordinated attack by the tech giants to kill competition in the market place… You can expect the war on competition and free speech to continue, but don’t count us out,” Matze said in a post on Parler after big tech pulled the plug. “There is the possibility Parler will be unavailable on internet for up to a week as we rebuild from scratch.”
Shortly before the site went dark, Matze said that the tech companies “all worked together to make sure at the same time we would lose access to, not only our apps, but they’re also shutting all of our servers off tonight, off the Internet. They made an attempt to not only kill the apps, but also destroy the entire company. And it’s not just these three companies, every vendor from text message services, to email providers, to our lawyers, all ditched us, too, on the same day.”
Related: Social Media Platform Parler Goes Dark As Amazon Suspends Service