The complaint says Amazon „will kill Parler’s business – at the same time it goes sky-high.”

background: Amazon Web Services discontinued Parler shortly before midnight Pacific Time on Sunday, said the microblogging platform violated Amazon’s terms of service by not doing enough to combat death threats and other public safety risks. AWS is the largest cloud provider worldwide, representing about 32 percent of the market. According to the IT analysis firm Canalys.

Google and Apple also launched Parler from their app stores over the weekend, on similar grounds.

Parler has become a popular alternative to Twitter and Facebook as these companies crack down on content posted by President Donald Trump and others. Last year, about 10 million people downloaded Parler, according to mobile app analytics company, Sensor Tower, about 80 percent of those are in the US. By contrast, Twitter had about 68.7 million US users in October, and Facebook users reached 220 million last year, according to analytics firm Statista.

Parler did not mention a specific number of users in the complaint, but said its use „accelerated” in 2021 with a 355 percent increase in downloads in the US on Friday. The company said efforts to find an alternative web hosting service „have failed”, and that it risks losing users the longer its service is disrupted.

„If Parler is not available, people will turn to alternatives, or perhaps return to Twitter or Facebook,” the complaint says. „And once these users start using another platform, they may not return to Parler once he comes back online.”