[Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in journalist Eli Sanders’ “Wild West” newsletter, which covers internet-related legal issues. Subscribe here.]
The social media platform Parler marketed itself as a place where Americans could “speak freely” and avoid the fear of being “deplatformed.” Its investors included conservative donor Rebekah Mercer, who described Parler as “a beacon to all who value their liberty.” But Parler was never any sort of wholly independent island of absolutely free speech.
Before Parler’s August 2018 launch, according to court documents, its leaders signed the nascent site up for Amazon’s cloud-based web hosting services. In practical terms, this meant that a platform that billed itself as “the world’s…
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