Parler’s New Hosting Provider Sets the Stage for Massive Censorship

The alternative social media provider Parler is back online after inexplicably relying on Amazon to provide their initial web hosting, but apparently the operatives behind the platform have not learned their lesson for the relaunch.

Parler’s new hosting provider, SkySilk, has a blanket ban on all “hateful material” without specifying what that term exactly means.

“We specifically reserve the right to refuse to provide the Service to customers or End Users engaged in dissemination of material that may cause us to be subject to attacks on our network, or that while technically legal, run counter to our corporate principles,” SkySilk wrote in their terms of service.

So Parler, while advertising itself to be a free speech platform, will really be operating off and dependent on the “corporate principles” of a far-left tech company.

Big League Politics has reported on the struggles of Parler after gaining momentum due to the sudden deplatforming of former President Donald Trump:

Parler is yet to return to the internet after a coordinated deplatforming effort on the part of Big Tech earlier this month, with a prediction from the platform’s CEO that Parler would be back online by the end of January seeming unlikely.

After Parler was promptly deplatformed by Amazon Web Services after the US Capitol riot, the services’ administrators sued the company, pointing to the termination of Parler’s web services as a violation of the company’s contract with Amazon. Litigation against the monopoly has proved unsuccessful so far, with a judge declining to issue a preliminary injunction requiring Amazon to reinstate hosting services and provide 30-day advance notice before shutting off access.

Parler’s URL is online, but only with a few messages from CEO John Matze and investors associated with the free speech platform. Parler’s team has repeatedly emphasized that they plan to return to functionality after initially questioning whether they could.

Free speech platform Gab remains online and functional, with the Parler competitor’s administrators scaling their server and hosting capabilities in recent weeks to accommodate an influx of users seeking to speak freely, having been rebuffed by Twitter’s censorious practices and Parler’s deplatforming.

All of Gab’s server infrastructure is internally owned and operated. This immunizes the free speech company to Big Tech’s cancellation tactics, providing them no means to shut off their platform.

The demise of Parler shows that social media alternatives must be truly anti-establishment, not supported by profit-driven conservative influencers and ivory tower oligarchs, in order to defeat Big Tech’s stranglehold over the marketplace.

This article originally appeared on Big League Politics.