Parler have been at the forefront of the news because of the events that took place a week ago. As it is believed that Parler has not done enough to police the content on their site that (may have) encouraged some of the events of the insurrection.
Parlor, for those who may not be aware, is a social media site that is similar to Facebook and Twitter. Except Parlor do not believe in editing or silencing. It is touted as being the place for free speech.
After the events on the Capitol, a number of companies have decided to distance themselves from Parler. Google and Apple removed the app from their App stores, and now Amazon has decided to suspend access to their cloud services. A move that is sure to render a crippling blow to Parler. Parler has responded by suing Amazon.
Now why is Amazon removing Parler from AWS a problem?
AWS, Amazon Web Services, is one of the largest (if not the largest) cloud computing services. To get an idea how large AWS is here are a list of companies that rely on AWS. ESPN, Netflix, Comcast, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Twitch, and a lot more that I can list. Amazon makes a large percent of its income from AWS.
So why don’t Parler go elsewhere?
Even though AWS is the largest cloud computing service they are not the only service. There are other companies out in this space to include Google, Microsoft, IBM, Kamatera, Server Space, Cloudway, to name a few. So yes Parler could just move over to another server, and likely will. But, just because there are others out there do not take away from the interruption in services and headache of getting things moved over that is causing frustrations for the creators. It will be interesting to see how this lawsuit plays out.
Sources:
https://www.guru99.com/cloud-computing-service-provider.html
https://www.contino.io/insights/whos-using-aws
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Web_Services
https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/parler-sues-amazon-antitrust-contract-breach
