In a long-shot lawsuit, Parler is claiming that Amazon Web Services reduced competition in the "microblogging" market when it cut off Parler on Sunday night.
Parler's lawyers are arguing that AWS' decision to terminate Parler appeared motivated by "political animus," and amounts to an antitrust violation because AWS continues to support Twitter.
The right-wing social media app, which was used to organize and facilitate the violence on Capitol Hill last week, is seeking a restraining order to prevent AWS from shutting down Parler.
"Doing so is the equivalent of pulling the plug on a hospital patient on life support," the suit, which was filed in federal court in Washington state, reads. "It will kill Parler's business — at the very time it is set to skyrocket."
Parler is also suing AWS for breaching their contract.
AWS in a statement said there is "no merit" to Parler's claims.
"It is clear that there is significant content on Parler that encourages and incites violence against others, and that Parler is unable or unwilling to promptly identify and remove this content," an AWS spokesperson said. "We made our concerns known to Parler over a number of weeks and during that time, we saw a significant increase in this type of dangerous content, not a decrease, which led to our suspension of their services."
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE