Parler for the Course

January 12, 2021

If the Jeff Bezoses of the world want to shut conservatives down, they're in for quite a fight. Twitter rival Parler, who is still reeling from being booted off Bezos's Amazon web service Saturday, is headed to court with a case that could rattle Big Tech's big plans. "Parler will be back," investor Dan Bongino vowed. "I will go bankrupt and destitute before I let this happen."

Fortunately, that wasn't necessary. Parler found a new domain and web host early Tuesday in Epik. But that doesn't mean there won't be blowback for what they experienced over the weekend when Parler became Apple's number one downloaded free app. The CEOs of Silicon Valley put their heads together and decided that banning President Trump from their platforms was gratifying -- but it would be useless if conservatives found another social media home. So, the modern robber barons at Amazon did what corrupt liberals do: they pulled the plug on Parler, ending its web hosting services altogether.

The reason, Americans were told, was because Parler wasn't doing enough to police any violent content. That turned out to be a ridiculously hypocritical excuse, seeing as one of Friday night's top trending tweets on Twitter was "Hang Mike Pence," and yet Jack Dorsey's company wasn't suspended. Obviously, the new lawsuit argues, Amazon's "decision to terminate Parler's account is... motivated by political animus. It is also apparently designed," they write, "to reduce competition in the microblogging services market to the benefit of Twitter." And that, Parler's attorneys point out, is a violation of anti-trust law. Not to mention, they go on, a breach of contract, since Parler was supposed to have a 30-day notice before Amazon canceled service.

Unfortunately for Parler -- and any other open, neutral forum -- Amazon has essentially cornered the market on this large-capacity hosting. Until now, they've really held all the marbles. Remember, Bezos is no friend to Christian conservatives. This is the same company that excludes faith-based organizations from its charity platform, because of the reckless "hate" labeling of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

This is the hostility and intolerance of the Left on display, and we have to adapt. Of course, the good thing about Americans is that we've proven we can adapt, especially when the desire for freedom drives us. And even though the hill is higher this time, I think that with the help of some creative Americans we are going to fight back against these totalitarians and establish our own means of effective communication.

In some places across the country, smaller companies are using the leverage they have to speak out. In Idaho, deplatformed conservatives have been so furious that one internet provider decided to block Facebook and Twitter altogether. "It has come to our attention that Twitter and Facebook are engaged in censorship of our customers and information," T1 WIFI's email reads. "Our company does not believe a website or social networking site has the authority to censor what you see and post and hide information from you, stop you from seeing what your friends and family are posting. This is why, with the amount of concerns, we have made this decision to block these two websites from being accessed from our network."

A company spokesperson said T1 WIFI had been fielding a massive influx of calls and complaints over the last few days about the two social media platforms. According to emails, roughly two-thirds of their customers had asked for the sites to be blocked. If Big Tech moguls want to play this game, and pick and choose who can speak, then they shouldn't be surprise when local communities push back. Most of them feel like Bongino does, "It's not about the money. If Parler goes down, everyone else will be next."

So what do you do when someone wants to silence you? Well, you just speak louder. I'm not about to give up on this country or the freedoms that so many before us sacrificed their lives to secure. We're going to continue to fight -- not in the way the Left fights or the Capitol rioters fought. We need to be smart about it, resolute about it. But we need to have confidence as we stand on the side of truth -- and do all we can to make that truth known.