The social media site Parler went dark after Amazon’s web-hosting services pulled the plug. This highlighted the often invisible Internet infrastructure that makes using the Internet possible.
Parler—the rightwing social media platform that sought to carve out a niche for itself by refusing to moderate conspiracy theories, hate speech, and incitements to violence—is searching for a new home.
The platform got kicked offline after extremists used Parler to coordinate the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol. But it wasn’t American courts, elected officials, or law enforcement agents who gave it the boot: That responsibility fell to a trio of Big Tech companies whose infrastructure helps form the backbone of the internet.
On Jan. 9, Apple and Google removed Parler from the App Store and the Android Marketplace, respectively, actions that prevented new users from downloading the app. The next day, Amazon Web Services dropped Parler as a client, which severed the social media…