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- Parler asked at least six large providers to host it after Amazon Web Services (AWS) took it offline.
- They all said no, according to a court filing by Parler’s CEO John Matze.
- Parler has since registered its domain with Epik and returned as a static page — but Epik said the companies had not been in contact.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Social media platform Parler asked at least six large providers to host its website after Amazon Web Services (AWS) gave it the boot – and they all said no.
It couldn’t host the site itself because it didn’t have the necessary resources or expertise, its CEO John Matze wrote in a court filing Monday. The hardware alone would cost at least $6 million, he added.
Parler was dropped by AWS on January 11. AWS said the social-media platform “poses a very real risk to public safety” and that Parler refused to remove content that incited violence. The site was used by pro-Trump supporters in the run-up to the January 6 Capitol siege.
Parler has since registered its domain with Epik and returned on Saturday as a static page. Epik said in a statement released Monday that though Parler registered its domain with the company, the companies had not been in contact.
CEO John Matze has said he’s “confident” the site will be fully operational by the end of January.
In its attempts to return online, Parler reached out to "at least six extremely large potential providers," who all turned it down, per the court filing. Matze refused to name the companies for legal reasons.
Google Cloud and IBM previously told Insider they wouldn't host Parler.
As well as hosting Parler's site, AWS had also provided Parler with cyber security services including protection against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which attempt to bring a site down by overwhelming it with traffic.
After AWS cancelled its contract with Parler, the website was unprotected, and vendors associated with Parler were hit by large-scale DDoS attacks "because of the publicity generated by AWS," Matze wrote.
The potential providers turned Parler down because they "were worried about another of what appeared to be an AWS-facilitated DDoS attack, or they believed AWS's publicly leaked allegations about Parler and refused to do business with us," Matze said.
Amazon did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Parler didn't have its own servers, datacenter, or the technical and security expertise to host the website itself, Matze added. The hardware alone would cost "upwards of $6 million," and would take weeks to arrive, he wrote - and if the site continued to boom, buying additional hardware could cost double that.
Parler also didn't have a large enough building to house this equipment, Matze said.
"Simply put, it would not be possible for Parler itself to acquire the necessary servers and related security infrastructure in a commercially reasonable time frame," he wrote.
Parler is now using an internet protocol address owned by DDoS-Guard, a Russian tech firm with links to racist and conspiracy-theory sites.
DDoS told CNN that it doesn't provide hosting services to Parler, but declined to say which services it does provide.
"Any customer can access and use our services as long as his/her activities are not prohibited in the country and do not violate any laws," the company said. "We do not want to be involved in the political scene in any countries around the world."
In the days after the Capitol siege on January 6, Parler had become a hub for President Donald Trump's supporters after many of their Twitter accounts were purged from the social media site, alongside Trump's own.
It became a haven for far-right activity and misinformation because of its lax stance on moderating content.
Trump himself considered joining the site, Matze has previously said.
Following the siege, Google and Apple barred the app from their app stores, and AWS took Parler offline.
Parler last week hit Amazon with an antitrust lawsuit, disputing the tech giant's claims that it repeatedly warned Parler about violent content.
Do you work at Parler and have a tip you want to share? Contact Grace Dean via email ([email protected]). Always use a non-work email.