By Nihal Krishan January
A handful of Big Tech companies moved to take down social media platform Parler over the weekend, but it appears to have found a new company to help try to keep its website running.
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.Story continues belowhttps://d-19587447073231504602.ampproject.net/2012232217000/frame.html
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.”