Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) on Wednesday sent a letter to the CEOs of Google, Apple, and Amazon questioning a series of actions their companies took against Parler.
The letter reads in part:
“As detailed in the timeline below, the timing of steps taken against the Parler social network by your companies and that the actions seem to lack any of the procedural fairness typically afforded in the case of an alleged breach of contract create the appearance of close coordination.
According to public sources:
- On January 8, 2021 Apple sent Parler notice of expulsion from the App Store. Parler was provided only 24 hours to remediate. Google sent Parler notice of expulsion from the Play Store, reportedly within hours of Apple’s notice. Parler was not provided a remediation option. Later in the day, Google removed Parler from the Play Store.
- On January 9, 2021 Apple removed Parler from the App Store. Amazon sent Parler a notice of suspension of their cloud services. No remediation option was provided.
- On January 10, 2021 Amazon suspended service to Parler.
In just three days, Apple and Google effectively cut off Parler’s primary distribution channel, and Amazon cut off Parler’s access to critical computing services, leaving the company completely unable to serve its 15 million users. These actions were against a company that is not alleged to have violated any law. In fact, information provided by Parler to the House Oversight Committee revealed that Parler was assisting law enforcement even in advance of January 6th.”
Read the full letter text here.
