Amazon cutting ties with Parler
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Well, sometimes we do it through precedents in civil law. I still think there’s some liability concern behind the Parler thing.
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@jodi said in Amazon cutting ties with Parler:
This is just unreal, isn’t it. I feel like I’ve woken up to an alternate reality. (Could be the migraine medicine I had to take at 4am. Seriously.)
Note, it's not the EVIL conservatives that are silencing speech.
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https://jonathanturley.org/2021/01/11/parler-shutdown-in-latest-attack-on-free-speech/
What is particularly concerning is the common evasion used by academics and reporters that this is not really a free speech issue because these are private companies. The First Amendment is designed to address government restrictions on free speech. As a private entity, Twitter is not the subject of that amendment. However, private companies can still destroy free speech through private censorship. It is called the “Little Brother problem.” President Trump can be chastised for converting a “Little Brother” into a “Big Brother” problem. However, that does alter the fundamental threat to free speech. This is the denial of free speech, a principle that goes beyond the First Amendment. Indeed, some of us view free speech as a human right.
Consider racial or gender discrimination. It would be wrong regardless if federal law only banned such discrimination by the government. The same is true for free speech. The First Amendment is limited to government censorship, but free speech is not limited in the same way. Those of us who believe in free speech as a human right believe that it is morally wrong to deny it as either a private or governmental entity. That does not mean that there are not differences between governmental and private actions. For example, companies may control free speech in the workplaces. They have a recognized right of free speech. However, the social media companies were created as forums for speech. Indeed, they sought immunity on the false claim that they were not making editorial decisions or engaging viewpoint regulation. No one is saying that these companies are breaking the law in denying free speech. We are saying that they are denying free speech as companies offering speech platforms.
If Pelosi demanded that Verizon or Sprint interrupt calls to stop people saying false or misleading things, the public would be outraged. Twitter serves the same communicative function between consenting parties; it simply allows thousands of people to participate in such digital exchanges. Those people do not sign up to exchange thoughts only to have Dorsey or some other internet overlord monitor their conversations and “protect” them from errant or harmful thoughts.
Much of our free speech today occurs on private sites like Twitter and Facebook. The Democrats want private companies to censor or label statements deemed misleading. Such a system would evade First Amendment conflict but it would have an even greater likely impact on free speech than direct government monitoring.
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The complaint asks a federal court for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Amazon (AMZN) and calls Amazon Web Services' decision a "death blow" to Parler.
"Without AWS, Parler is finished as it has no way to get online," the complaint said. "And a delay of granting this TRO by even one day could also sound Parler's death knell as President Trump and others move on to other platforms."Parler's lawsuit argues that Amazon has unlawfully sought to restrain competition by eliminating a player from the market.
It also claims Amazon breached its contract with Parler by not providing Parler 30 days' notice of termination -- and that its actions interfere with Parler's relationships with current and future users.
In a letter obtained by CNN Business that was sent to Parler Chief Policy Officer Amy Peikoff on Saturday, Amazon Web Services said that in recent weeks it has reported 98 examples to Parler of "posts that clearly encourage and incite violence." The letter includes screenshots of several examples.
"We've seen a steady increase in this violent content on your website, all of which violates our terms," AWS wrote. "It's clear that Parler does not have an effective process to comply with the AWS terms of service."
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment concerning the lawsuit.
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What I don't understand is why not only the Parler servers are down, but the parler.com domain is even deleted from the domain name system!
I tried this with both my providers DNS server and Google's.
Usually, Parler should at least be able to control their DNS entry and redirect it to some "Under construction" page, where they can keep people posted about their progress.
I wonder whether somehow "big tech" has managed to purge their DNS entry, too. That would be a new quality of "canceling".
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Deleting Parler’s DNS entries is over the line.
The owner of the Parler.com domain should continue to have control over its DNS listing.Tried to buy “Parler.com” through a couple of web hosting shops and both reported that “Parler.com” is already taken, so hopefully the rightful owner of that domain name still owns it.
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Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
@axtremus said in Amazon cutting ties with Parler:
Deleting Parler’s DNS entries is over the line.
The owner of the Parler.com domain should continue to have control over its DNS listing.Tried to buy “Parler.com” through a couple of web hosting shops and both reported that “Parler.com” is already taken, so hopefully the rightful owner of that domain name still owns it.
Do you know more about the DNS system?
This is the whois entry on parler.com:
class name: domain handle: 1336588_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN LDH (letters, digits, hyphens) name: PARLER.COM name: type: port 43 service: Entities: - Handle: 617 - Role: registrar - IANA Registrar ID: 617 - Version: 4.0 - Type: fn, Content: Epik Inc. Nameservers: - Object Classname: nameserver - LDH Name: NS3.EPIK.COM - Object Classname: nameserver - LDH Name: NS4.EPIK.COM DNSSEC: - Domain name is not signed - Domain name is not signed - Delegation signed: - Max sig life: - Keytag: - Algorithm: 13 - Digest Type :2 - Digest: CA6F6FE153855853D9190B41BEFE222D6882AC591F27858DCB9373F0339BBCB7 rdap conformance: - rdap_level_0 - icann_rdap_technical_implementation_guide_0 - icann_rdap_response_profile_0 Links: - Link: self: https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/PARLER.COM () - Link: related: https://rdap-whois.epik.com/domain/PARLER.COM () Notices: - Terms of Use: - Description: Service subject to Terms of Use. - Link: : https://www.verisign.com/domain-names/registration-data-access-protocol/terms-service/index.xhtml () - Status Codes: - Description: For more information on domain status codes, please visit https://icann.org/epp - Link: : https://icann.org/epp () - RDDS Inaccuracy Complaint Form: - Description: URL of the ICANN RDDS Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://icann.org/wicf - Link: : https://icann.org/wicf () Statuses: - Status: client transfer prohibited Events: - registration: 1998-05-28T04:00:00Z - expiration: 2022-05-27T04:00:00Z - last update of RDAP database: 2021-01-12T11:48:43ZLooks pretty "empty" to me. Only the name of the company that seems to manage the DNS entry, "Epik", is given.
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@klaus said in Amazon cutting ties with Parler:
@axtremus said in Amazon cutting ties with Parler:
Deleting Parler’s DNS entries is over the line.
The owner of the Parler.com domain should continue to have control over its DNS listing.Tried to buy “Parler.com” through a couple of web hosting shops and both reported that “Parler.com” is already taken, so hopefully the rightful owner of that domain name still owns it.
Do you know more about the DNS system?
This is the whois entry on parler.com:
class name: domain handle: 1336588_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN LDH (letters, digits, hyphens) name: PARLER.COM name: type: port 43 service: Entities: - Handle: 617 - Role: registrar - IANA Registrar ID: 617 - Version: 4.0 - Type: fn, Content: Epik Inc. Nameservers: - Object Classname: nameserver - LDH Name: NS3.EPIK.COM - Object Classname: nameserver - LDH Name: NS4.EPIK.COM DNSSEC: - Domain name is not signed - Domain name is not signed - Delegation signed: - Max sig life: - Keytag: - Algorithm: 13 - Digest Type :2 - Digest: CA6F6FE153855853D9190B41BEFE222D6882AC591F27858DCB9373F0339BBCB7 rdap conformance: - rdap_level_0 - icann_rdap_technical_implementation_guide_0 - icann_rdap_response_profile_0 Links: - Link: self: https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/PARLER.COM () - Link: related: https://rdap-whois.epik.com/domain/PARLER.COM () Notices: - Terms of Use: - Description: Service subject to Terms of Use. - Link: : https://www.verisign.com/domain-names/registration-data-access-protocol/terms-service/index.xhtml () - Status Codes: - Description: For more information on domain status codes, please visit https://icann.org/epp - Link: : https://icann.org/epp () - RDDS Inaccuracy Complaint Form: - Description: URL of the ICANN RDDS Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://icann.org/wicf - Link: : https://icann.org/wicf () Statuses: - Status: client transfer prohibited Events: - registration: 1998-05-28T04:00:00Z - expiration: 2022-05-27T04:00:00Z - last update of RDAP database: 2021-01-12T11:48:43ZLooks pretty "empty" to me. Only the name of the company that seems to manage the DNS entry, "Epik", is given.
Epik is brand new for Parler.
Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
@jolly https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/parler-finds-refuge-with-right-leaning-webhosting-service
On Monday, Parler registered its domain and server to be hosted by Epik, an internet webhosting company known for working with right-leaning websites. Gab, another social media platform popular with conservatives, also uses Epik. A web domain search shows that Parler is now registered with Epik.
Epik put out a statement on Monday claiming it had no discussion of providing future services to Parler. Epik did acknowledge, however, that Parler was "working on satisfying the requested terms placed upon them."
Epik also defended Parler and said that it was being unfairly treated in comparison to its larger competitors Twitter and Facebook, which create an "undeniable double standard" when it comes to their policing and enforcement of content.
Earlier Monday, Amazon stopped providing cloud services to Parler, causing the website to go offline. Apple and Google have also removed the Parler app from their platforms. These actions have brought the platform to a standstill, just days after it was the most downloaded application in the country on Friday.
Parler sued Amazon on Monday, alleging that the tech giant's actions are unfair, anti-competitive, and politically motivated because Amazon has not taken any action against Twitter for similar violent content on its platform. Twitter is also a client of Amazon Web Services business for hosting websites.
In its lawsuit, Parler claimed that, without Amazon's support, "Parler is finished as it has no way to get online." Parler also said that switching to a different service provider, like Epik, in order to host its platform would require significant changes to its website, which would cause the website to go offline for a "financially devastating period."
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@george-k said in Amazon cutting ties with Parler:
In its lawsuit, Parler claimed that, without Amazon's support, "Parler is finished as it has no way to get online." Parler also said that switching to a different service provider, like Epik, in order to host its platform would require significant changes to its website, which would cause the website to go offline for a "financially devastating period."
Wait a second, didn't Parler claim elsewhere that it will take them a week at most to move to a different cloud service?
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The overall DNS infrastructure still points to Epik's servers (ns3.epik.com, ns4.epik.com) as authoritative for the "Parler.com" domain. Per the article @George-K quoted, Parler has registered with Epik. So it looks like overall DNS as a system is still on the up and up, no one is "blocking" or misdirecting the DNS lookups for "Parler.com". It's Epik's name servers that return 0.0.0.0 for "Parler.com", so that's strictly between Epik and Parler.
If the deal with Epik falls through, Parler should still be able to get access to the Internet, get a couple of static IP addresses, then it can run its own servers and make its own servers the authoritative name servers.
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@89th said in Amazon cutting ties with Parler:
@jolly said in Amazon cutting ties with Parler:
Half-billion dollar company wiped out in 24 hours.
Enjoy!I wonder if Trump is proud of his negative effect, he's like the anti-King Midas.
I wonder if you'll actually consider how much this resembles the modern manifestation of McCarthyism?
Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
@jolly said in Amazon cutting ties with Parler:
@89th said in Amazon cutting ties with Parler:
@jolly said in Amazon cutting ties with Parler:
Half-billion dollar company wiped out in 24 hours.
Enjoy!I wonder if Trump is proud of his negative effect, he's like the anti-King Midas.
I wonder if you'll actually consider how much this resembles the modern manifestation of McCarthyism?
Ann Coulter has said that Joe McCarthy was a great American. I wonder if she's on board with the current trend.
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@jolly said in Amazon cutting ties with Parler:
@89th said in Amazon cutting ties with Parler:
@jolly said in Amazon cutting ties with Parler:
Half-billion dollar company wiped out in 24 hours.
Enjoy!I wonder if Trump is proud of his negative effect, he's like the anti-King Midas.
I wonder if you'll actually consider how much this resembles the modern manifestation of McCarthyism?
Hey if BLM had stormed the Capitol while it was in session, to try and prevent the election of a Republican, resulting in 5 deaths, etc...and Amazon and other commercial companies decided to deplatform BLM, I’d be fine with it too. I’d imagine so would you?
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