Congressman Ken Buck (R-CO) and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) delivered a win for speech on Monday. The pair of bicameral lawmakers wrote to the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Apple, Amazon, and Google inquiring about the companies’ “deplatforming” of Parler, a new social media platform.
The two noted that all three companies cut ties with Parler in the same three-day time period.
“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,” the letter reads. “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.”
The letter requested responses from the companies about their respective content policies, as well as processes for review and appeal.
One of the three technology giants responded to the lawmakers as of Monday morning. Apple revealed that Parler will be reinstated on the platform for users to download.
On March 31, @SenMikeLee and I sent a letter demanding answers about why Apple removed Parler from the App Store.
— Congressman Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) April 19, 2021
??Today, we received a response: Parler will be reinstated on the App Store. Huge win for free speech. pic.twitter.com/FQBDSSSFGk
The company maintained that there was no coordination between the three companies for the removal of Parler from their respective platforms.
