Apple suspends Parler from App Store, Amazon kicking Parler off hosting platform
A small number of high tech giants have moved to deplatform Trump, his supporters, and other dissident voices from the internet.
Apple joins Google in removing the Parler App from the App Store. This is part of a broad internet tech giant move to deplatform not only Donald Trump, but also supporters on the pretext of threats of violence after the Capitol Hill riot
That deplatforming goes far beyond social media, and includes webhosting, email services, and other platforms.
They are developing the template for complete internet bans — social media, email services, hosting companies, etc. Welcome to Communist China, American edition. It won't stop with Trump, they are drunk with tech power now. https://t.co/Ml4AAzsFz6
— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) January 9, 2021
The NY Times was the first to break the Apple news.
Breaking: Apple just pulled the Parler app.
Apple said Parler is allowing too many posts that encourage violence and crimes. This follows a similar move from Google yesterday.
Parler was one of the fastest-growing apps in the U.S., but now its future is in question.
— Jack Nicas (@jacknicas) January 10, 2021
Axios summarizes:
Apple said Saturday it has suspended Parler, a social media app that’s become popular among conservatives and far-right extremists, from its App Store over issues concerning threats of violence and illegal activity on its platform.
What they’re saying: “Parler has not taken adequate measures to address the proliferation of these threats to people’s safety,” Apple spokesperson Fred Sainz told Axios in an email.
Details: Apple had warned Parler on Friday that the social network had a day to present a plan to better moderate harmful content or else it would be removed from the App Store. Parler will be able to return to the App Store if it comes up with such a plan, Apple said.
- Yes, but: That’s unlikely to happen. Parler’s whole pitch to users is that it promotes free speech and won’t crack down on politically objectionable content.
Our thought bubble: Apple’s move follows Google Play suspending Parler without any grace period, so as the app gatekeepers flex substantial power, they’re also keeping an eye on what one another are doing.
Between the lines: Despite being spiked from both major mobile app stores, Parler remains accessible on any mobile or desktop device via its website.
- Nevertheless, some critics are pressing Amazon, whose AWS unit hosts the Parler platform, to pull support, which would take the network offline until it could find other hosting.
Worth noting: Parler was the No. 1 app in Apple’s App Store this weekend prior to the tech giant suspending the service.
Not that it matters to these tech censors, but Parler noted that there are worse issues on Twitter:
“This is very huge,” Amy Peikoff, Parler’s policy chief, told Fox News on Friday, when Apple first threatened to remove the app. Without access to the App Store, she said, “we’re toast.”
John Matze, Parler’s chief executive, said in a text message early Saturday that Twitter had recently promoted the phrase “Hang Mike Pence” as a trending topic. (The majority of the discussion on Twitter was about rioters chanting the phrase about the vice president on Wednesday.) “I have seen no evidence Apple is going after them,” Mr. Matze said. “This would appear to be an unfair double standard as every other social media site has the same issues, arguably on a worse scale.” He added, “But we are taking this very seriously.”
We are entering a very dangerous period. They are drunk with power, and are moving in for the internet kill.
UPDATE:
This is serious, via Buzzfeed:
Amazon on Saturday kicked Parler off its Web hosting services. Parler, a social network favored by conservative politicians and extremists, was used to help plan and coordinate the January 6 attempted coup on Washington D.C. It has recently been overrun with messages encouraging “Patriots” to march on Washington D.C. with weapons on January 19.
Amazon’s suspension of Parler’s account means that unless it can find another host, once the ban takes effect on Sunday Parler will go offline.
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Comments
yEaH gUyS jUsT uSe PaRlEr wE dOnT nEeD tO rEmOvE 230 pRoTeCtIoNs
What is the purpose of typing your text in that fashion? I’m not asking you to be control wise, I really do want to know. I’ve seen this being done before. Thank you.
It’s a generally accepted way to convey sarcasm in text form, as sarcasm is very difficult to convey and adding /s or /sarcasm has way too many people not actually read to the end.
I see this crap on some ads, in every case they were scams, I created a filter to trash them.
All caps are obnoxious, and so is this.
But it makes you look like an idiot. Why do it?
I don’t bother reading gibberish.
Uh no no it’s really not. In fact I’ve never heard anyone make that claim before. It’s also really hard – to the point of not bothering, to read.
If you want to emphasise sarcasm then try (/sarc), add a ! to the tag (/sarc!) or leave off the brackets /sarcasm!
Depending on the site you might have to use ( brackets or < brackets
It is a meme thing. It is intended to show the stupidity of people who say the words typed that way.
Not to be petty…but how could this possibly be downvoted?
It is to look like a kidnappers ransom note.
No need for sarcasm. Yes, just use Parler. And as you can see from the post, Parler has prepared for the possibility of losing its hosting. It just make take a few days, they say up to a week, to move somewhere else. They have options, but this coordinated attack on a weekend caught them short.
And section 230 has nothing to do with this. AWS is not required to have them as a client if it doesn’t want to. Nor are the Apple and Google app stores.
And whether you like it or not, repealing section 230’s protections for Facebook and Twitter is not only a bad idea but almost certainly impossible. It is almost certainly unconstitutional to hold someone liable for content they did not post, did not actively approve, and were not aware of. No matter how many times you say it, they do not act as publishers. They do not vet content before it goes up, allowing only that which they approve. Instead they allow anyone to post anything, most of the time without a moderator ever laying eyes on it, but they have moderators roaming the site deleting offensive content if and when it comes to their attention. That means they are not publishers.
They are acting as distributors, just like bookstores. And it’s well established that bookstores cannot be held liable for the content of books they have in stock, unless they know for a fact that that content is illegal. And that is all section 230 says. Repealing it would not change that.
Remember that the purpose of section 230 in the first place was to require moderation of offensive material. As part of that, of course, it shielded providers from liability for doing what the law required of them. Then the courts struck down the requirement as unconstitutional, which it was, leaving only the protection, which wasn’t really necessary, because the courts would very likely have overturned the horrible Prodigy decision and left things as they are now.
Color me shocked…Milhouse a typical naval gazing lawyer in full support…as I have stated lawyers are the architects and planners of the demise of our Constitutional Republic…so deep into their commas, and shall be, verbiage they have utterly no concept or frankly even care what our Constitution was meant to protect.
Don’t confuse milhouse with a lawyer. He’s not.
Now is that a good or bad thing…
Let’s think about it. If what you say is true and section 230 cannot be repealed, obviously it must be found in the invisible ink on the constitution.
While I don’t believe in the invisible ink theory, if arguendo it is in the penumbra somewhere, clearly repealing section 230 is constitutional because the simple statute just repeats what the constitution already contains. So there is no lack of protection.
Of course, one might think a bit more and find that there are competing rights at stake. The enumeration of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people, including the right to defend your rights in court. Now section 230 removes that right from everyone by granting immunity to private actors. If anything this is an unconstitutional violation of the right of those whose rights are violated by the protected entities.
So, if anything, section 230 is unconstitutional because it denies millions the right to defend their rights against private actors. Notably, publishers do not get this protection, and so far none of them has managed to successfully claim that the fact that they are not beneficiaries of immunity against any action brought against them in a court of law is a violation of the constitution of the United States of America.
But, Milhouse, feel free to explain how it is.
I didn’t say repealing it is unconstitutional, I said repealing its protections is unconstitutional, because those protections are required by the first amendment. It is well-established law that bookstores are entitled to those same protections, and that is exactly how interactive computer services such as these operate, so it’s hard to see how the courts could fail to find that they have the same protections.
There is no right to sue for defamation when the speech in question is protected by the first amendment. That’s a major limitation on defamation law in the USA.
Bookstores have that protection because they are not in any way, shape, or form, publishers. They also don’t pretend to be forums open to everyone. Independent bookstores choose which books to carry, chain stores carry what corporate tells them too. There are also specialized bookstores- like the Catholic one my wife frequents. Never seen a book promoting witchcraft there. Oh, wait, why would I say that? Well, I really upset a Barnes & Noble assistant manager one time when I pointed out that a whole table of books promoting witchcraft and the occult labelled “Recommended Reading for Adolescents” wasn’t the best choice of books for them… Started ranting about free speech and he wouldn’t allow censorship…tada tada tada….
In the case of Facebook/Twitter/etc- they say they’re public forums. And want protection since they don’t actually write anything. But then- they engage in editorial functions- they censor viewpoints they don’t like, cover up “disturbing” photos (it’s laughable some of the things I’ve seen covered) and now throw people off for disagreeing with Democrats. They’re either editors responsible for everything that’s written on them- including the liberals I’ve seen posting the politician who stated any Trump supporters should be openly harassed and kicked if you see them, or they’re not. If I stated that Biden voters ought be committed for being retarded- I’d be in Facebook jail. Much less violent than kicking and harassing them…
They want to not be responsible for content while editing content. If they are editing- and they are- then they are responsible for ALL content.
And IMHO- that should include each and every scam advertisement that people fall for. They make zero effort to screen their advertisers- they just take their money. Latest one I’m getting- an over $200 retail hanging tent for only $19.95! It’s a targeted ad- you probably don’t get it. How do they know I’m interested? I’ve done google searches- they share information. At 65, sleeping in the ground when I take Scouts camping is getting rougher… I almost went for the LLBEAN slipper ad- but first went to LLBean. And it says right on their website- this is our ONLY website. IOW, llbeanoutlet.com is not LLBean. They have people to factcheck conservative posts- but they don’t have people to police their advertisers? Why not?
Prosaic uncreative minds emote banalities. For those willing to take a broader view of law read 15 U.S. Code § 13 – Discrimination in price, services, or facilities.
Laws and the freedoms the guarantee always depend tenuously on the good faith of the men and women charged with executing and interpreting the law.
Sadly, since these firms are engaging in political acts condoned by a major political party the, interplay between 47 U.S. Code § 230 and 15 U.S. Code § 13 may well be construed in favor of the tech giants by a District Court. However, Parler has an arguable set of facts for a complaint based on 15 U.S. Code § 13 and other anti-trust laws. Safe harbor does not authorize collusion.
The safe harbor censorship law 47 U.S. Code § 230 does not authorize the destruction of a company by another larger company. Amazon had remedies short of the destruction of a firm it disagreed with.
Amazon, et. al. actions were implicitly if not explicitly approved by the Swamp. Reverse the politics and plenty of laws can be dug up to prevent these actions. And would be.
Then how is it that companies are held liable for the actions of their employees who do things the employer is unaware of and didn’t condone? Do publishers and websites have more equal protection than say, manufacturers or restaurants? I think the answer to that question is clearly yes, which is why section 230 should be eradicated.
But I have an easier way to deal with the mini gestapos of the world. Dump their products and dump their stock. Dump Twitter, Facebook, Google and Apple. Put your money into helping to build free market alternatives and create an alternative economy. Mick people mercilessly who stupidly work for those companies. They’re the enemies of the people.
Masters’ liability for their servants’ actions while on the job is a long-established principle of the common law. And I don’t understand how you think it can be unconstitutional; what part of the constitution would prevent it.
Holding someone liable for someone else’s speech, however, is clearly prohibited by the first amendment.
“It is almost certainly unconstitutional to hold someone liable for content they did not post, did not actively approve, and were not aware of. No matter how many times you say it, they do not act as publishers.”
This is dumb, even for a SCOTUS Justice with a brain capacity that rivals the baby Jesus Obama as yourself Mills…these people have done EXACTLY this to Parlor, they have held Parlor directly accountable and responsible for supposed posts made by supposed extremists as justification for deplatforming them.
So fuck them. Remove their protections and let them suffer their fate and hold them to the same standards that they hood everyone else who has differ ideas and thoughts when it comes to politics.
You’re even dumber than I thought. Google, Apple, and Amazon are not bound by the first amendment. That is why they could do this to Parler. A government entity could not.
Google, Apple, and Amazon are working with the government to restrict freedom of speech.
They should be broken up into tiny little pieces.
It’s time for conservatives to get Nausea phones and use Wechat. During the wechat ban debate, many users said that the US IP discussions about American politics are completely unmoderated/uncensored.
Ugh autocorrect. Nausea => Huawei
What makes those phones different from any other android phone?
For one, the phone will actually let you install Parler. You can’t install Parler on Apple. Android is harder to install because since not in Google store. Google could delete Parker from your Android phones.
Also, the tech companies are already spying on you.
A better solution is to flash a conventional Android phone with a non Google Android. LI could play a role in finding a knowledgeable Cellular technician and have them start producing suitable phones.
I carry a 4G MiFi for mobile Internet access, and all my mobile communications go out on the MiFi. I use more than one Android phone which connects solely to the MiFi, no cellular service.
google cant delete sideloaded apps. d/l apk install it playstore not needed.
Sure. Let’s all use Huawei phones. You do know the Chinese own them lock, stock and barrel?
I guess this time autocorrect got it right.
LOL, that’s what I was going to say.
Jumping from the frying pan into the fire is counter productive.
Leftists own and control Twitter, Google, etc. The gap between these leftists and the Communists is ever shrinking. The Huawei phones are a lot cheaper than Apple/Samsung, and there is a chance the Chinese platforms will actually not censor Americans talking to other Americans.
You have to consider that I am thinking about a near future where the tech companies destroy all of their competitors like Parler and Gab.
have you considered that the Chinese phones may have hardware spying? And, there are plenty of low cost Android phones which can be rooted and flashed with open source Android.
have you considered that the Chinese phones
mayhave hardware spying?FIFY
I suspect nebel is a chinese agent
Huawei, no way.
Not the point. The Chinese government is listening in and can do whatever it likes. No, thanks.
The current state is that the tech companies are listening in and doing whatever they want.
After the tech companies destroy all competition like Parler, our only choice will be to look outside of the US for hardware and social media platforms.
Let me get this straight: You’re worried about the US tech companies spying on you, so you want to go straight into the jaws of the Chinese government?! How does this make any sense at all?
My primary concern is censorship. You are objecting to the spying by the Chinese, but big tech makes its money by spying on you and selling your private information.
“My primary concern is censorship. You are objecting to the spying by the Chinese, but big tech makes its money by spying on you and selling your private information.”
The Chinese can already gain information from social media either by direct monitoring of what is placed there, or via purchase of data from the tech platform owners. So there is not real difference that I can tell. Google already cooperates with the PRC to control content and internal communications.
The tech companies are becoming virtual autocratic states.
They are acting in an authoritarian manner. Beware, you are being monitored, and your information is being used in what ever manner the desire. You gave your consent to it.
It’s a new year. It’s 1984.
Nebel, you have some really hairbrained ideas. WeChat is a CCP controlled platform.
If Wechat continues to allow unmoderated internal US political posting, then Wechat is better than our big tech. If big tech succeeds in destroying Parler, Wechat could be our only choice. The American communists will have already banned us, but maybe the Chinese communists will find some advantage in letting us speak to other Americans.
Ha ha, spellcheck keeps doing that to me too. I was thinking gee, I already have a nausea phone. It’s called the Apple iPhone. Time to trade in the enemy phone for something better.
I’d think countries around the world that still have some semblance of democracy would be worried about what the tech companies are doing. I mean if they can take down the president of the US, how are those smaller countries going to cope?
Could we see a nationalization of the tech companies in those countries? Huge increases in the taxes they charge them to run their platforms?
Also severe restrictions on their spying, and how they use data.
Please, stop using the left’s vocabulary. When they impose terms, we lose. We do not live in a democracy, nor do we want to. The founders had learned from history; democracy is simply mob rule. When leftist mobs roam the streets chanting, “This is what democracy looks like” they a) unwittingly telling the the damning truth on themselves and therefore b) illustrating why the founders rejected democracy as perhaps the worst form of government, always descending into the tyranny of the majority, and instead chose a far superior form of government.
Article IV Section 4 of the United States Constitution (the Guarantee Clause): “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.”
The fact we have a Democrat party in a Constitutional Republic is again simply a self-own on the part of America-hating leftists. They are literally calling themselves subversives. So it isn’t surprising that leftists want to “fundamentally transform” the U.S. They view the founding of this country, and therefore its founding document, as evil. Hence the lie of the NYT “1619 Project.” When it was thoroughly debunked by actual historians the author, a Ms. Hannah-Jones, was forced to admit her “project” was not history at all but an effort to “change the narrative” about the history of the U.S. Yes, of course; to change the narrative from one based upon actual history to one based upon Marxist lies. The Bolshevik air-brushing of our history wasn’t even slowed by her revelation.
And now another America-hating leftist, Pelosi, is trying to get the Joint Chiefs to overthrow the President as the CinC if Pelosi’s political coup fails during the next two weeks. What Pelosi is doing is sedition in its purest form. Yet she pays no price?
At the very least, please, don’t walk into their language traps. Speak the truth. To be a big “D” democrat in a constitutional republic is to advertise the fact that you are a domestic enemy of the U.S. Constitution. Could Pelosi make that any more clear by inciting the military and naval chiefs to rebel against the constitutional order that makes the President THE civilian in control of the armed forces of the United States?
https://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit
“George Orwell
Politics and the English Language
…I have not here been considering the literary use of language, but merely language as an instrument for expressing and not for concealing or preventing thought. Stuart Chase and others have come near to claiming that all abstract words are meaningless, and have used this as a pretext for advocating a kind of political quietism. Since you don’t know what Fascism is, how can you struggle against Fascism? One need not swallow such absurdities as this, but one ought to recognise that the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language, and that one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end. If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy. You cannot speak any of the necessary dialects, and when you make a stupid remark its stupidity will be obvious, even to yourself. Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind…”
Orwell may not have been speaking of language as an instrument of concealing or preventing thought, but it’s an inescapable conclusion one reaches when reading his essay. He may not have been speaking of it, but it had to have been on their mind. And he certainly had the politicians such as Pelosi, Schumer, Obama, Harris, etc., who use language to make their lies sound truthful and to make the truth sound like a lie and murder and all their other crimes sound respectable while making the respectable and legal sound like a crime.
They learned well, helping the CCP enslave and repress the Chinese people.
And enslave Hong Kong, and that is Dems vision for America.
1984 Apple Ad smashes Big Brother “Think Different”
2021 Apple becomes Big Brother’s enforcer. New slogan= “Obey”
This will cause lasting damage and greater polarization and it is far far worse than a bunch of unarmed idiots who rampaged through the halls of Congress for a few hours.
This was planned well in advance.
What happened Jan 6 was used a a pretext. They would have manufactured another excuse if that hadn’t happened.
This has nothing to do with Trump.
It’s an American version of Tiananmen Square and it will only get worse after China Joe is sworn in.
You’re right. Cultural Revolution – USA version.
Solution: we ban them before they ban us.
There are alternatives.
But if violence begins against us, there will be no alternative, and Zuckerberg, Bezos and the like will be facing an army of people showing up at their homes and their workplaces.
I am not in favor of violence of any sort, but, strangely, I am beginning to agree with AOC. Why does anyone need more than $1 billion? Maybe we should, via the arm of the democratic process, remove the excess wealth of the tech oligarchs.
Anyway, see you guys in the labor camps! I hope they wait until spring so it will be warmer in the rice patties.
These progressive a-holes have it coming – long overdue. What can be done? I want revenge on the grand scale.
I agree, justice is more appropriate than revenge.
First, we need to clean up the communications mess.
The best immediate solution is to setup list servers as a base communication system. We may need to resort to the dark web. Whatever we do should probably be end to end encrypted.
Call them what they really are…… regressive totalitarians.
Big Brother Tech perfected these tactics while working to censor and stiffle free speech on behalf of their Chinese Commie friends and fellow travelers.
What I want to know is why Parler doesn’t already have its apps available for download from its own web site.
When the news broke about it not being available any more from the app stores, and all of a sudden people who had never had it before started asking where they could get it, like they need it right this minute, I told them to go to parler.com and surely they would find it there. I was astonished to find that they couldn’t.
Why haven’t they been up there for years? It just seems the logical place for them to be. Just because your app is available from the store is no reason not to host it on your own site.
This is probably just inexperience. Most people do not consider contingency on a routine basis. I do, always have, layers of contingency. My business operations needed that kind of planning, it was more complicated than playing 3D chess.
Both iOS and Android place certain controls over the app loading process…it’s not nearly as wide open as it is with a PC. In the Android world you have to go adjust your system settings to allow apps from non-Google sources to be loaded. The Apple world makes it even more difficult… practically impossible to load apps that don’t come from their app store. Modern web app development techniques can be used to develop full web apps that operate like native mobile apps, but the process of accessing and loading them is cumbersome compared to native apps. All of these things, taken together, create enough friction to prevent any app from going viral outside the app store ecosystems.
And for desktop, what prevents MAC and Windows operrom blocking the use of Parler? I don’t trust Apple/Microsoft/etc companies for a second. In fact based on the previous behavior, you should plan for ever expanding censorship.
It would require changes to the Windows and Mac operating systems. Both were built around the assumption that software apps can be loaded from discs, and later from the web. The mobile OS’s, on the other hand, were built from the ground up as “walled gardens” with the iOS walls being higher than the Android walls.
I heard that Apple will only allow installs from its store. Therefore, Apple hardware will not allow new installs of Parler. It is also for Apple to forcibly wipe existing Parler installs from iPhones. This is why I am looking outside of the US for tech that won’t sensor conservatives.
So you’re looking to the Chinese government?!
What alternative will there be?
If there aren’t any, we’re finished as a country. The alternative to being scratched by a cat isn’t to jump into the mouth of a lion.
Milhouse….
Not just a lack of preparation for Parler, but for all of us. Although I do have Parler, but haven’t been using it. Seems the Parler app is on their website, but seems that isn’t a possibility. So also I would encourage something like Bridgify, which uses Bluetooth in population dense areas for phone calls. Calls are through neighbors phones and not cell towers. A minimum population density is needed.
I would crow about already having Parler and Bridgify, but pride comes before the fall and I’m sure many of y’all have done other SHTF plans I haven’t. So let’s get through this and think of other things to do to be prepared.
I have first aid kits…in the car, by the front door, and in the bathroom.
android apk would be easy to do.
iirc apple does not allow non-store installs but I may be wrong.
what they could do, once on new servers, is also point out web browsers on phones can be used also.
Perhaps the attorneys running this site could address possible legal action regarding Tortious Interference, Civil RICO statutes, restraint of trade, and civil anti-trust actions. It’s clear that the tech giants are acting in concert to shut out a potential competitor. Obviously, there are criminal statutes as well but I don’t expect a Biden DoJ to do anything but assist the tech giants.
The best outcome is to stop big tech from destroying alt-tech competition.
There is potential for litigation in theses areas. However, the outcome is not certain and would be very expensive against a very deep pocketed opponent, and requires years of persistence and patience. Meanwhile, your business dies.
As I have expressed in other posts, I consider the court system now to be very arbitrary and slow. Sophistry and whim rule the day, and the law is whatever a judge or a jury says it is. The better funded litigant has an advantage at least as great as their superiority in wealth. The judicial system today is not set up for the beneficial use of someone without substantial financial resources. What happened in Oberlin recently is more of the exception than the rule.
If you can adjust to avoid their malice and avoid court, I would recommend spending your resources for that end rather than going to court.
I am a cloud engineer. Cloud provider independence is a big topic, as there have been some moves by the major cloud providers in the last few years – unrelated to politics – that mean every organization hosting its servers in the cloud has been looking at ways to ensure they aren’t locked in to a specific vendor.
Ironically, it’s an open-sourced Google technology (Kubernetes) that makes it trivial to move all your services from any cloud to any cloud, or your own bare metal if you so choose. Similarly, the whole point of Android was to have a smartphone OS that wasn’t a “walled garden” like Apple’s iOS.
All true, but when the bandwidth providers, ICANN, payment platforms, etc get in on the censorship party, then what?
Unlike social media sites, ISPs actually are common carriers, which means they operate under very different rules. Ditto payment providers, who are regulated as banks.
However, you have a good point: it’s one thing for individual web sites to exercise their First and Fifth Amendment protections not to do business with whoever they want. In a well-functioning Internet marketplace, anyone can create their own site and snap up the unserved customers.
What we have now is something very different, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s technically antitrust violation or tortious interference or whatever because the entire apparatus of the law has become corrupted. I fear we’re going to start seeing the Internet equivalent of Killdozers.
The rino rats of the “Lincoln Project” are going to get themselves killed, hopefully:
Lincoln Project Says It Is Building Database of Trump Officials, Staff: ‘They Will Be Held Accountable’
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/01/09/lincoln-project-says-it-is-building-database-of-trump-officials-staff-they-will-be-held-accountable/
Elon Mush is advising his 42 million Twitter followers to use messaging app Signal instead of Facebook products.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/elon-musk-facebook-signal/
This does not appear to be related to Facebook’s decision to go full Mao. But anything that takes a bite out Facebook right now is a plus for the good guys.
Elon Musk. I mushed the wrong letter!
FFF? Freudian Fat Finger?
which jack from twitter helped make popular. so mush was right spelling…
disregard that last I had misunderstood something re jack and this app. I was wrong.
The pervs flock to the left, whoring for them in any way.
Lincoln Project founder accused of offering jobs to young men in exchange for sex:
https://www.citizenfreepress.com/breaking/lincoln-project-founder-accused-of-offering-jobs-to-young-men-in-exchange-for-sex/
Don’t use Twitter. Spam it. Spam Twitter to not upload content!
Amazon is also demonstrating that it’s an unreliable business partner for web service hosting. AWS is one of the biggest providers, but that’s a commodity service that can easily be supplied by other organizations. In the “olden days” some 10 years ago, most firms did that themselves.
FWIW, it looks like Parler is still operating.
They’re being shut down Sunday night at 11:59 p.m.
The First Amendment, as revised by Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter: “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, but WE can…”
Look, this was done 2 or 3 years ago to Gab. All of this and MUCH MORE.
Y’all act like they’ve never deplatformed any person or company, but they have. In this EXACT manner, years ago. Parler knew it, but didn’t have the chops to prepare for it.
http://www.Gab.com did. Gab has its own servers because of this EXACT experience. EXACT. They had to get a new DNR registrar because of this too. Wait until Parler can’t even have a web address! Email! Embed services!
Y’all have been sleeping. I’m on Gab. Gab is installing new servers because of the crushing increase of demand: like twit when it was growing. Anyway, Gab is hardened.
The rest of you, wake up.
Look, this was done 2 or 3 years ago to Gab. All of this and MUCH MORE.
You’re late to the party. This was all done many years before, down to domain-seizing and ISP cutoffs, to St0rmfr0nt and various neo-Naz! cells. That’s why adding “political affiliation” to protected discrimination grounds isn’t going to save you: St0rmfr0nt and NAM8LA are “political organizations”, and if they aren’t then any mainstream political position can be declared “not a political position”, too.
This is a cultural problem, not a legal one. This kind of strognarm unpersoning of people you don’t agree with has to have social consequences. I’m just starting to think it’s too late for that.
They also started http://www.TV.Gab.com.
And they’re working on a phone alternative so apple and google can’t block apps.
Yes, it’s slow right now, but it’s up and in a week, week and a half, they’ll have the additional servers installed and the speed will pick up to normal.
And it’s got a GREAT interface.
My thanks to all of the GUTLESS GOP stooges who let big tech get away with this by overriding the President’s veto. A-holes, bought and paid for by these fascists.
Ok I am going to try and make this post as tech nerd jargon free as possible.
Large tech owns the platforms (sites ie Twitter, ECT) and the underlying operating systems (android, ECT) that they run on.
Your phone or kindle or CPU runs software. That software can be updated and modified by the developer at any time. The developer owns the software code and has defacto ownership/control of your device. The normal non tech savvy end user consumer doesn’t have much option. They lack the ability/knowledge to implement workarounds.
Now the bigger issue, IMO, is server space. That costs $. Lots of $ to lease or buy a building, the electricity and cooling required for a server farm. Huge capital outlay to start, operate and maintain a server farm.
That is why cloud computing took off. The economies of scale make it much easier to simply utilize server space from a third party: Amazon cloud or whoever else.
The economics allowed many sites like LI among others to simply pay a fee for a turnkey webpage development and content hosting space. Hooray lots of diverse sites with diverse opinions!
Oops! Now the third party platforms and the the server companies are flexing their power against those with ideology real or imagined that those companies don’t like.
Solutions:
IMO the result will be conservative leaning sites, companies, individuals will need to find new homes for their content hosting; platform software and server space.
CTH, Conservative Treehouse, just went through this issue. They got notice that WordPress was kicking them off. CTH went out and purchased servers and switched to a different platform. They did a data transfer to their own servers.
That is a huge pain in the ass. Not difficult just cumbersome, the tech equivalent of digging a foundation with a shovel; slow and tedious but in the end certain to work.
In the next few months we are likely to see a wider movement of this. More and more conservative/ small l Libertarian leaning sites will either individually set up hosting or collectively band together for economic scale and finance the purchase of a ‘red’ platform(s) and server farm(s).
That is the only way to keep from being de-platformed; own the platform and the servers.
There ate a couple of more tech nerds that post here who can provide greater information and maybe they can read and weigh in with their own thoughts.
But if they need financing, the banks will start to cut them off. No loans. No lines of credit. There must be an alternate financing plan as well.
I live in rural AZ and have used AMAZON as an easy way to avoid an hour drive to city for items. I have just eliminated about half my items in my monthly shopping basket. I will start using other alternatives. We used to spend ~$500/month on Amazon….no longer.
Walmart has a new premium shipping service similar to Amazon prime. It’s not as extensive, but it could be your next best bet.
Yes, I will start using WALMART for groceries and sundries. It does not have woodworking items my husband needs….so still window shopping for alternatives. I see no need to give my hard earned money to a company that despises me.
Use Wal-Mart’s new free delivery service, also Overstock.com has a lot of the same stuff as Amazon. You can also go directly to a favorite product’s website. Most offer free shipping on orders over $20-100,the deal will be noted on each site. Sure, it’s not as quick and easy as one-stop amazon shopping, but once you get it setup, it won’t take that much longer to re-order as most sites provide order again options.
Amazon was my hardest drop, but it had to be done and now I don’t miss it at all (with the perhaps odd exception of Prime video, but I am getting used to commercials again).
Yep, we’re dropping amazon as well.
Please read this carefully and think before you respond. If you don’t, hours could seem like days.
I’m worried that Twitter, Amazon, Apple, Parler, and Google aren’t doing enough to protect our free speech. And I’m an investor trying to decide how their policies are likely to affect their stock prices. Should I buy, sell, or hold?
Since the internet doesn’t seem to be working very well, it’s getting harder and harder to download investment information from company web sites. Just this morning, Parler’s web page would only load sporadically. It seems that good old U.S. Mail is more reliable.
So I guess I’ll resort to asking most of these companies to mail me their annual reports and other investor materials. I know they’re probably busy, and I regret the extra manpower and money they will expend. But it’s not prudent to make investment decisions without all the information. And I know that companies are eager to communicate with investors and potential investors, even if SEC regulations didn’t require communication.
Don’t worry about the planet. I’m sure I’ll recycle whatever I receive once it’s no longer useful.
I won’t be offended if you don’t respond to this comment. Someone wise once said “listening is better than speaking, and doing is better than listening.” Or something like that. I can’t find the exact quote on the internet at the moment. It seems like one of those days.
The evolution from collocation to cloud computing never struck me as a good idea. I’m old school, been working with computers since 1974. I prefer to have my servers where I can physically lay hands on them.
The solution for parlor isn’t build a data center somewhere. It’s rent some rack space from a non-woke company where the children don’t get to decide who can play, and park a few servers there and turn the damn key.
I don’t understand why Conservative Treehouse would have to move off of WordPress. If they were being hosted by WordPress, they could just back up their content, move to another hosting provider, and pick up where they left off. The software runs nicely on pretty much any Linux based server. If being deplatformed was the final straw that got them moving on a platform change they were contemplating anyway, that’s a different story.
WordPress hosting and wordpress software are two distinct entities.
CTH got the boot from wordpress hosting. They moved and made changes as they saw fit in the process.
WordPress software is fine.
https://redstate.com/streiff/2021/01/10/it-looks-like-the-big-tech-conspiracy-just-killed-parler-n307714
https://twitter.com/alexsalvinews/status/1348387727440453632
Parler CEO John Matze says his platform can’t find an alternative after being dropped by Amazon’s servers, and lawyers are no longer representing the company:
Would it be possible to assert that monopolies conspired to damage, or if dmacleo’s links above above are correct, kill off Parler?
If no lawyers are willing to represent then it’ll likely be impossible to win, and of course Amazon, Apple, and Google have deep enough pockets that they could likely just keep fighting until bankruptcy ends the case – unless the government intervenes, which won’t happen once Biden takes over.