- Far-right social media app Parler has been dropped from Amazon’s cloud platform and removed from Google’s and Apple’s app store in the wake of last week’s insurrection at the US Capitol.
- Publicly-viewable records show that Parler is using Microsoft Exchange Online as an email provider as of Wednesday morning. Microsoft and Parler did not comment by the time of publication.
- Internal Microsoft discussions viewed by Insider indicate that Parler is a customer of the Microsoft Office 365 productivity suite — with dozens of employees debating what to do about the situation.
- Some think that following Microsoft’s peers in dropping Parler would be a form of overreach: “I personally hope that we just let them be,” one employee wrote.
- Other employees believe that Microsoft should follow Amazon’s lead in removing Parler: “They set an example I would be proud of my employer to follow,” one wrote.
Parler, the far-right social media app favored by supporters of President Donald Trump, was removed from Apple’s and Google’s app stores on Friday in the wake of last week’s deadly riot at the US Capitol.
Not long after, many of Parler’s service providers – most prominently, Amazon Web Services – cut ties as well, leaving the app offline and in limbo as it searches for a new web host. Twilio, Okta, and Zendesk all removed Parler from their respective platforms over the weekend.
However, Parler was an active customer of Microsoft Office 365 at least as of Sunday, apparently using the cloud suite as its email provider, according to internal discussions viewed by Insider. That’s sparked debate between employees over whether the company has a responsibility to follow its peers in cutting Parler off, which could force the app to find a new email provider, even as it hunts for a replacement cloud platform.
