A hacker claims to have archived all of Parler's deleted posts and says they provide 'very incriminating' evidence in the wake of the deadly mob attack at the US Capitol.
Parler went offline shortly after 3am EST Monday after Amazon booted the platform off its web hosting service, effectively shutting the site down until it can find a new hosting partner or fund its own servers.
It had already vanished from the Apple and Google app stores after they cut ties with the right wing platform.
Now Twitter user @donk_enby says she has obtained files from the site complete with GPS metadata to show exactly where they were taken. That could prove helpful for law enforcement looking into the DC riot.
She told Gizmodo how she started with the aim of archiving every post since the Capitol riot on January 6. But when it emerged the site would be scrubbed she worked to pull 99 per cent of the content on the site.
Some of the clips 'may include things' from deleted and private posts, @donk_enby said. The data is also said to contain information about the site admins.
A hacker claims to have archived all of Parler's deleted posts and says they provide 'very incriminating' evidence in the wake of the deadly mob attack at the US Capitol
The president's daughter Ivanka Trump was among those who had set up a Parler account as conservatives dissatisfied with Twitter flocked to the site
Sean Hannity, the Fox News host favored by Donald Trump, also had an account on the page
@donk_enby said: 'I want this to be a big middle finger to those who say hacking shouldn’t be political.'
'I am now crawling URLs of all videos uploaded to Parler. Sequentially from latest to oldest. These are the original, unprocessed, raw files as uploaded to Parler with all associated metadata,' she wrote Sunday.
She later added on Twitter Monday: 'only things that were available publicly via the web were archived. i don't have you e-mail address, phone or credit card number. unless you posted it yourself on parler.'
John Matze founded Parler in 2018 as a 'free-speech driven' alternative to mainstream platforms. He is pictured with his family
Parler on Monday announced it will sue Amazon for antitrust violations after the site was scrubbed from the web overnight.
CEO John Matze said Monday morning he was doing more than Facebook and Twitter to try and remove violent content from his app. In a statement the self declared libertarian said: 'Evaluated objectively, our system worked as well or better than the methods used by our competitors, while adhering to our principles.'
The site then announced it will sue Amazon and ask a federal judge to order the tech giant to reinstate the platform, The Hill first reported.
The 18-page suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle against Amazon Web Services (AWS). It claims: 'AWS's decision to effectively terminate Parler's account is apparently motivated by political animus. It is also apparently designed to reduce competition in the microblogging services market to the benefit of Twitter.'
It notes: 'Friday night one of the top trending tweets on Twitter was 'Hang Mike Pence.' But AWS has no plans nor has it made any threats to suspend Twitter's account.'
Shortly after 3am EST, Parler disappeared from the web with an error message saying 'we can't connect to the server' after Amazon pulled the plug
The app was removed from the Google app store after conservative social media users flocked to the site in the wake of the Capitol attack
Parler are thought to have targeted AWS, rather than Apple and Google, as 'both the apps and the website are written to work with AWS's technology'. 'Without AWS, Parler is finished as it has no way to get online', the suit adds.
Losing access to the app stores of Google and Apple severely limits Parler's reach to millions of smartphones. Losing Amazon Web Services means Parler needs to find another web host to be accessed on a browser.
Matze argued 'up until Friday afternoon it seemed Apple, Amazon and Google agreed' the app had been effective in their efforts to remove 'objectionable content', adding: 'You can expect the war on competition and free speech to continue, but don't count us out.'
Matze had initially said that Parler might be unavailable for 'up to a week as we rebuild from scratch', but now says it might be offline for longer. Google and Apple both booted Trump friendly Gab from their app stores in 2017 and it was left internet-homeless for a time. It now hosts through its own servers.
Hailed by Donald Trump supporters as a conservative-friendly alternative to Twitter, Parler is seen as a magnet for the far right and was accused by Apple, Google and Amazon of continuing to allow messages inciting violence after Wednesday's attack at the Capitol
Critics have continued to slammed the big tech giants for purging free speech in the wake of Donald Trump's Twitter ban.
Fox New host Jeanine Pirro later argued Parler's deplatforming 'is akin to a Kristallnacht'. In 1938, Nazis in Germany and Austria vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses during an attack that became known as Kristallnacht.
She said: 'They gave us a taste of this pre-election when they suppressed the Hunter Biden story. And now that they've won, what we're seeing is a kind of censorship that is akin to a Kristallnacht, where they decide what we can communicate about.'
Journalist Glenn Greenwald on Sunday accused the tech giants of 'feigning offense to destroy' to Parler. He claimed 'far more violence' has been planned on Facebook.
He tweeted Monday to pan liberals as 'overwhelmingly supportive' of big tech using 'brute force 3 times in 3 months to manipulate US politics'
Greenwald wrote: 'Tech monopolies -- FB, Google, Apple, Amazon -- have more concentrated wealth & power than any in history. They have used brute force 3 times in 3 months to manipulate US politics: censoring NY Post, banning Trump, destroying Parler. And liberals are overwhelmingly supportive.
'That these Silicon Valley monopolies are grave menaces to political freedom & economic well-being is *not* a right-wing view.
'Authoritarians never believe they're authoritarians, no matter how much censorship, surveillance, jingoism, & imprisonment they demand. They tell themselves their enemies are so uniquely evil and dangerous - terrorists - that anything done in the name of fighting them is noble.'
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