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John Matze, CEO of Parler, shared Saturday night, January 9, that it might take the app as long as a week to go back online after it’s booted from Amazon’s servers late on Sunday night. He later posted an update saying the app could be functional as soon as Monday after it’s booted late Sunday night. Here’s what you need to know about what’s happening with Parler and exactly when it will likely go offline.
Matze Said It Could Take Up to a Week for Parler to be Back Online, But Later Said It Might Be as Soon as Monday
Parler
In a long message to Parler users, Matze provided an update on what was happening Saturday night and how long the app might not be available. The entire message is in the screenshot above, which was followed by the hashtag “#speakfreely.”
He wrote: “Sunday (tomorrow) at midnight Amazon will be shutting off all of our servers in an attempt to completely remove free speech off the internet. There is the possibility Parler will be unavailable on the internet for up to a week as we rebuild from scratch. We prepared for events like this by never relying on amazons proprietary infrastructure and building bare metal products.”
Matze did not say the app would definitely be down for a week, but that there was a chance it could be down that long as they rebuild “from scratch.”
He continued: “We will try our best to move to a new provider right now as we have many competing for our business, however Amazon, Google and Apple purposefully did this as a coordinated effort knowing our options would be limited and knowing this would inflict the most damage right as President Trump was banned from the tech companies. This was a coordinated attack by the tech giants to kill competition in the market place. We were too successful too fast. You can expect the war on competition and free speech to continue, but don’t count us out.”
Later that same night, he posted a new note saying that the app could be functional again as soon as noon on Monday, January 11. That would be just a few hours after it’s booted. Here’s a screenshot of what he wrote.
Parler
Parler
He wrote at the end of his message: “For us to win this fight we need everyone back on Parler Tuesday. By Monday at noon we will be fully operational again.”
The Suspension Begins Sunday at 11:59 PM Pacific
Parler will no longer be available starting Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Pacific, which is when the suspension from Amazon kicks in, CNBC reported. This translates to 12:59 a.m. Mountain on Monday morning, 1:59 a.m. Central, and 2:59 a.m. Eastern on Monday morning, January 11.
Amazon Web Services sent an email to Parler’s Chief Policy Officer Amy Peikoff about the app violating its terms of service and the upcoming suspension. According to CNBC, the letter read, in part: “AWS provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum, and we continue to respect Parler’s right to determine for itself what content it will allow on its site. However, we cannot provide services to a customer that is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others. Because Parler cannot comply with our terms of service and poses a very real risk to public safety, we plan to suspend Parler’s account effective Sunday, January 10th, at 11:59PM PST.”
Being booted from Amazon’s servers would take the app offline completely until it finds a new host.
According to The New York Times, Amazon sent Parler 98 examples of posts encouraging violence, and many were still active.
The Announcement Comes After Parler Was Removed from Google & Apple’s Stores
Parler had a large influx of users on Friday, January 8 after Trump was banned from Twitter, leading to the site temporarily crashing.
On January 8, after Parler crashed, CNN reported that Google had removed Parler from the Google Play store. Google confirmed the decision with CNN Business on Friday night. This was not the cause of the crash.
Earlier on January 8, Apple threatened to ban Parler from the App store, Buzzfeed News reported. The threat was made via an email to Parler executives after complaints were received that the app was used to coordinate the Capitol riots. Apple then removed Parler from the store on January 9.
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