Re:Parler drops offline after Amazon pulls support
by inglor_cz on Monday January 11, 2021 @12:12PM
(#25731993)
I could definitely have formulated my opinion better...
If Amazon acted alone, I do not think that there would be an antitrust case. But given that Amazon acted together with the app store duopoly, in what appears to be a coordinated action with the same goal, I think the antitrust case applies. If two very dominant players make a pact with a third not-so-dominant player to squeeze somebody a bit more, it only makes their anti-competitive behavior harsher.
BTW, I believe that Parler really could have prepared better. It is obvious that they did not have a good plan B.
Re:Parler drops offline after Amazon pulls support
by tylerhou on Monday January 11, 2021 @01:19PM
(#25733254)
Why do you assume that there was necessarily coordination? In my opinion it's likely everyone who is dropping Parler came to their verdict independently.
Re:Parler drops offline after Amazon pulls support
by inglor_cz on Monday January 11, 2021 @01:34PM
(#25733610)
It is certainly possible that they all acted independently, but given how many cases of anti-competitive behavior on their part have been documented in the linked report of the Congress - these companies are not completely honest.
Mikhail Gorbachev used to say "Trust, but verify." I would like to see some verification in this case.
It seems more like poor planning on their part: over-reliance on specific services of a single provider, and no disaster recovery plan for if this is made unavailable. Particularly considering the business they're in - publishing controversial content that gets its users banned on more mainstream social media sites. They would have been wise to have a backup plan for hosting.
On the other hand, if you were also passing reference to the app store duopoly (as the report mentions this), I agree with you on that. At least on Android a banned app can be fairly easily side-loaded; iOS users are entirely subject to Apple's whims on what their device is permitted to run.