Colorado man suing Amazon in Parler dispute

DENVER — A group of plaintiffs, including a Colorado man, are bringing a class action lawsuit against Amazon Web Services Inc., a web-hosting and cloud-computing subsidiary of Amazon Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), as a result of AWS’ decision to drop the controversial Parler social media platform following last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol that was inflamed by President Donald Trump and left five people dead. 

Parler, which is known for taking a more hands-off approach than competitors such as Facebook and Twitter when it comes to political or hate speech, has become increasingly popular among right-wing extremists, some of whom are alleged to have used the site to plan the Jan. 6 attack in Washington and post violent threats about political adversaries. 

AWS stopped hosting Parler after the platform was banned by Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Google (Nasdad: GOOGL) mobile application stores for failure to crack down on incendiary posts.

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The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Denver by attorneys representing Parler users Charles Hoyt of Colorado, Rodney Dugar of California, Victoria Stilz of Nevada, Dwayne Bronk of Illinois and Nicole Bailey of North Carolina, claims the plaintiffs “suffer[ed] highly unpleasant mental reactions, outrage, anger, frustration, shame, humiliation, chagrin, disappointment, worry, inconvenience, and/or severe emotional distress” as result of the loss of access to the social media site. 

The suit also claims that AWS’ actions intentionally made Parler unable to maintain the terms of its user agreements with posters on the site. The plaintiffs, represented by lawyers with Denver-based Boesen Law LLC and Irwin Fraley PLLC, are suing on behalf of a potential class made up of all roughly 12 million Parlor users. They argue the user agreement amounts to a contract. 

“The plaintiffs will respectfully decline comment on the lawsuit at this time as it has just been filed and will need time to be developed and litigated,” attorney Brad Irwin told BizWest in an email Wednesday. 

AWS also declined to provide additional comment beyond providing BizWest with a copy of its court filing in response to a U.S. District Court of Washington suit brought against the firm directly by Parler — a legal action distinct from the class-action lawsuit filed in Colorado. 

“This case is not about suppressing speech or stifling viewpoints,” the filing said. “It is not about a conspiracy to restrain trade. Instead, this case is about Parler’s demonstrated unwillingness and inability to remove from the servers of Amazon Web Services content that threatens the public safety, such as by inciting and planning the rape, torture, and assassination of named public officials and private citizens. There is no legal basis in AWS’s customer agreements or otherwise to compel AWS to host content of this nature.”

AWS lawyers said the firm suspended Parler “as a last resort to prevent further access to such content, including plans for violence to disrupt the impending presidential transition.”

Furthermore, AWS cited Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, which shields certain tech companies from legal liability. 

The filing cites a multitude of posts from Parlor users that threaten violence and death against Democrats, technology company executives, athletes, law enforcement and racial minorities.

The Colorado suit, to which AWS has yet to respond, demands unspecified monetary damages and an injunction that forces AWS to restore Parler to its servers.