In the wake of the Capitol riot, Google, Apple and Amazon joined forces to destroy their on-the-rise competitor's platform: Parler.
Founded on the concept of free speech and exchange of ideas, Parler was removed from Google and Apple app stores, as well as from Amazon’s cloud because of a “lack of content moderation.”
Additionally, the Big Tech conglomerate claimed that the lack of content moderation led to Parler being used as a forum to “plan, coordinate, and facilitate the illegal activities in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021,” The Federalist reports.
“These events were largely organized on platforms that don’t have our abilities to stop hate and don’t have our standards and don’t have our transparency," Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said.
A few days after the riot, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) wrote a letter to the FBI demanding the agency undertake a “robust examination” of Parler’s role in “the assault, including as a potential facilitator of planning and incitement related to the violence, as a repository of key evidence posted by users on its site, and as a potential conduit for foreign governments who may be financing civil unrest in the United States.”
But, she had it all wrong.
Though a few conversations prior to the riot did occur on Parler, other major media platforms were involved in a much larger way.
But, they got away scott-free.
Upon the Department of Justice charging 223 people for their participation in the riot, an analysis of the charging documents demonstrated that Parler’s role was, in fact, minimal compared to that of Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, according to The Federalist.
Of the charging documents, 73 reference posts on Facebook, 24 reference posts on YouTube, 20 on Instagram and only eight on Parler.
Yet, Parler was the only one that got cancelled, so to speak.
If any platform should take the majority of the blame, it should be Facebook.
But, Facebook retains too much power and control in the tech realm, and that will never happen.
The Big Tech conglomerate does not want competition, and that’s what Parler was: a threat to their global power and control.
Indeed, Big Tech will go as far as it takes to ensure their market dominance and control over their users.
