Parler CEO: ‘No Indication’ Big Tech’s Warnings Were ‘Deadly Serious’ Until Last Minute

Parler founder and CEO John Matze speaks to The Epoch Times' Jan Jekielek on "American Thought Leaders" in 2019. Screenshot/The Epoch Times

Parler CEO John Matze, whose social media company is still reeling after Amazon Web Services (AWS) suspended the company’s account, said there was no indication from Amazon, Apple, or Google before they pulled their services.

After the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Apple and Google removed the Parler app from their respective Google Play and Apple App Store apps. And on Jan. 11, AWS removed Parler from its servers after giving the upstart “free speech” social media platform a short notice.

“It’s very, very interesting that they all, on the exact same day without previously indicating, they never indicated to us that there was any serious or material problem with our app,” Matze told Fox News in an interview Jan. 17. “But on the same day, you know, all on the same day, they send us these very threatening notices.

“So we said, ‘OK, let’s call this. Let’s see what you know, let’s see what Google said. Oh, they actually never emailed us and we have no way to contact them. OK, so Google is out. Apple ... we called our rep, and they basically shrugged it off and made no indication that this was deadly serious, despite ... their email being very serious.”

Matze alleged that “Amazon, as usual, [was] basically saying, ‘Oh, I never saw any material problems. There’s no issues.’ You know, they played it off very nonchalantly. And so we had still even, you know, on the 8th and the 9th, you know, we had no real indication that this was, you know, deadly serious.”

Parler is currently offline until it finds a new hosting service.

Officials at Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

Parler last week filed a lawsuit against AWS, demanding that the firm reinstate the social media company’s service while alleging that AWS engaged in monopolistic practices.

“This case is not about suppressing speech or stifling viewpoints. It is not about a conspiracy to restrain trade,” AWS said in response on Jan. 13.

“Instead, this case is about Parler’s demonstrated unwillingness and inability to remove from the servers of Amazon Web Services (‘AWS’) content that threatens the public safety, such as by inciting and planning the rape, torture, and assassination of named public officials and private citizens.”

Before the Big Tech firms moved against Parler, the social media platform was the fastest-growing one at the start of the year.

“We were No. 1 on the App Store. We were above Facebook, we were above TikTok, we were above YouTube, above Instagram, above every app on the App Store in the United States,” Matze said. “We were No. 1 before we got the ax.”