Elon Musk tears into the 'West Coast high tech' who have turned into the 'de facto arbiter of free speech'

Elon Musk has torn into the 'West Coast high tech' who have turned into the 'de facto arbiter of free speech' after Amazon scrubbed Parler from the internet. 

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO had replied to a satirical tweet about Twitter and Facebook banning Donald Trump from their platforms. Twitter also permanently banned Trump loyalists as part of a broader purge of accounts. 

Musk said Monday: 'A lot of people are going to be super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech.'

Replying to another user who said 'West Coast high tech has to make the distinction between banning hate speech and banning speech it hates', Musk added: 'This is an important distinction.' 

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 platform in the wake of the deadly mob attack at the US Capitol.  

The site later said it would sue Amazon Web Services (AWS) over the decision. Amazon said the lawsuit has 'no merit', arguing it 'is clear that there is significant content on Parler that encourages and incites violence against others'.

CEO John Matze, who launched the app in August 2018, said that he has been receiving death threats since his social media platform was thrust into the spotlight. 'People are threatening my life,' he said. 'I can't go home tonight.

The social media crackdown has revived a debate over whether tech giants should be treated as 'publishers' with the same liability as news providers. 

Critics have slammed the move as a purge on free speech and pointed to Amazon 'holding the keys to the internet'. 

The company's chief content officer, Amy Peikoff, further said that social media firms forcing Parler from their platform was Orwellian. 

Matze told Fox News' Tucker Carlson that it was 'scary' how comprehensive his blacklisting had been, and how quick.

'You just never think it will happen, right?' Matze told Carlson. 'You know? 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday slammed tech titans for 'authoritarianism, cloaked as moral righteousness' during his speech on the broadcaster Voice of America. 

'Censorship, wokeness, political correctness, it all points in one direction - authoritarianism, cloaked as moral righteousness. It's similar to what we're seeing at Twitter, and Facebook, and Apple, and on too many university campuses,' Pompeo railed.

'We are all parts of institutions with duties and responsi 

Discussing the removal of Parler from AWS, American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Ben Wizner told The New York Times: 'There is a difference between a social media platform like Twitter...deciding who its members are and what its guidelines should be, and a company like Amazon that really hold the keys to the internet.'

Wizner also pointed to a 2017 quote by CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince when he took down The Daily Stormer who said: 'I woke up in a bad mood and decided someone shouldn't be allowed on the internet… No one should have that power.'  

Source: The Daily Mail

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