As long as your internet connection has survived the extreme cold snap, Parler is back online. In the aftermath of the January 6th Capitol riot, Amazon suspended social network Parler’s web service access on January 10th for violating its terms of service. Now it’s relaunched on a new backend it claims is “built on sustainable, independent technology and not reliant on so-called ‘Big Tech’ for its operations.” The relaunch comes with new interim CEO, Mark Meckler, replacing John Matze, who Parler’s board was ousted.
Amazon, Apple, and Google distanced themselves from Parler after evidence that the Capitol attackers had used the platform to organize the incident. The iOS App Store and Google Play dropped it, and Parler tried to get back online by suing Amazon on antitrust grounds, which were denied.
While the site is back online, there are still no smartphone apps for the ‘free speech’ social network. Parler will need to convince at least part of Big Tech that it can maturely handle and moderate its users.
AT&T and Verizon appear to be having issues as well.
The cold snap currently hitting the US has battered carrier networks, with T-Mobile first acknowledging the issue yesterday afternoon. AT&T and Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) seem to have similar problems, but their problems don’t seem to be as widespread. Most of T-Mobile’s outages appear clustered in and around Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Texas is currently going through one of its coldest winters in decades, with temperatures below freezing in every part of the state. Continue reading.
And that was back in 2018.
As Apple demands more explicit privacy explanations from Facebook apps and the social network reportedly conducts “a campaign against Apple” with antitrust regulators and government figures, it’s all getting messy. And it seems it started a couple of years ago, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report that outlined the escalation of hostilities between the two. Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018, Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked what he’d have done if he were running Facebook at the time. He said he wouldn’t have found himself in such a situation in the first place and criticized
Facebook for invading user privacy. Zuckerberg publicly said these comments were “extremely glib“, but he said he wanted to “inflict pain” on Apple inside the company. He’s not talking emotional pain; Facebook has reportedly considered filing a lawsuit against Apple over alleged anti-competitive policies and has even offered to provide Epic Games with documents to aid that company’s legal battle with Apple. Continue reading.
