Page 12 - aruba-today-20210123

A12 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 23 January 2021
Judge says Amazon won't have to restore Parler web service

By MATT O'BRIEN about free speech," a point speech" away from "the tyr-
AP Technology Writer also underscored by the anny and hubris of our tech
Amazon won't be forced judge. overlords."
to immediately restore web Parler CEO John Matze had Amazon said the compa-
service to Parler after a fed- asserted in a court filing that ny signed up for its cloud
eral judge ruled Thursday Parler's abrupt shutdown computing services about
against a plea to reinstate was motivated at least a month later, thereby
the fast-growing social me- partly by "a desire to deny agreeing to its rules against
dia app, which is favored President Trump a platform dangerous content.
by followers of former Presi- on any large social-media Matze told the court that
dent Donald Trump. service." Matze said Trump Parler has "no tolerance
U.S. District Judge Barbara had contemplated joining for inciting violence or law-
Rothstein in Seattle said the network as early as Oc- breaking" and has relied
she wasn't dismissing Par- tober under a pseudonym. on volunteer "jurors" to flag
ler's "substantive underlying An Amazon logo appears on an Amazon delivery van, Thurs- The Trump administration problem posts and vote
claims" against Amazon, day, Oct. 1, 2020, in Boston. last week declined to com- on whether they should be
but said it had fallen short Associated Press ment on whether he had removed. More recently,
in demonstrating the need planned to join. he said the company in-
for an injunction forcing it magnet for the far right, shows some of Parler's users Amazon denied its move formed Amazon it would
back online. sued to get back online, have engaged in." She also to pull the plug on Parler soon begin using artificial
Amazon kicked Parler off arguing that Amazon Web faulted Parler for providing had anything to do with intelligence to automati-
its web-hosting service on Services had breached its "only faint and factually political animus. It claimed cally pre-screen posts for
Jan. 11. In court filings, it contract and abused its inaccurate speculation" that Parler had breached inappropriate content, as
said the suspension was market power. It said Trump about Amazon and Twitter its business agreement "by bigger social media com-
a "last resort" to block Par- was likely on the brink of colluding with one another hosting content advocat- panies do.
ler from harboring violent joining the platform, follow- to shut Parler down. ing violence and failing to Amazon last week revealed
plans to disrupt the presi- ing a wave of his followers Parler said Thursday it was timely take that content a trove of incendiary and
dential transition. who flocked to the app af- disappointed by the ruling down." violent posts that it had re-
The Seattle tech giant said ter Twitter and Facebook but remains confident it Parler was formed in May ported to Parler over the
Parler had shown an "un- expelled Trump after the will "ultimately prevail in the 2018, according to Ne- past several weeks. They
willingness and inability" to Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. main case," which it says vada business records, with included explicit calls to
remove a slew of danger- Capitol. will have "broad implica- what co-founder Rebekah harm high-profile political
ous posts that called for the Rothstein said she rejected tions for our pluralistic soci- Mercer, a prominent Trump and business leaders and
rape, torture and assassina- "any suggestion that the ety." backer and conservative broader groups of peo-
tion of politicians, tech ex- public interest favors requir- Amazon said it welcomed donor, later described as ple, such as schoolteach-
ecutives and many others. ing AWS to host the incendi- the ruling and emphasized the goal of creating "a ers and Black Lives Matter
The social media app, a ary speech that the record that "this was not a case neutral platform for free activists.q

Google's parent deflates internet-beaming balloon company

empire finance risky ideas phones during the past de- lion during the same pe-
like internet-beaming bal- cade. riod.
loons and another high- That made it even more Loon's balloons had been
profile flop, internet-con- challenging for Loon to find working with telecom pro-
nected glasses. a way to make money, cul- viders to provide internet
As reflected by its name, minating in the decision to access in Kenya and will
Loon was viewed as a deflate it. continue to do that until
crazy idea from the start. "The road to commer- March, according to Teller.
Yet Google's hopes for the cial viability has proven Because it has been work-
project were a lofty as the much longer and riskier ing with other companies
high-flying balloons them- than hoped," Astro Teller, on that access, Loon ex-
selves when the company the head of the X division, pects little or no disruption
finally took the wraps off wrote in a blog post. to the Kenyan customers'
the project in New Zealand Alphabet doesn't disclose internet access.
in June 2013. the results of other compa- To help Kenya expand its
In this Feb. 14, 2018, file photo the logo for Alphabet appears on The ambitious goal at that nies besides Google. The internet access, Alphabet
a screen at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York. Google’s par- time was to launch thou- group of other far-flung is will give $10 million to
ent company, Alphabet Inc., is letting the air out of an internet-
beaming balloon company that was providing online access sands of massive balloons companies that include nonprofits and businesses
from the stratosphere. 12 miles (20 kilometers) self-driving car pioneer aimed at advancing that
Associated Press into the stratosphere in or- Waymo, health services cause.
der to bridge the gaping venture Verily and drone Most of the employees
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE was announced late Thurs- digital divide between the delivery gambit Wing are working at Loon will be laid
AP Technology Writer day, ending what started world's 4.8 billion unwired clumped together with off with severance packag-
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — out nine years ago as one people and their 2.2 billion Loon and others in a divi- es while some others will be
Google's parent company of Google's secret projects plugged-in counterparts. sion known called "Other offered jobs at X, Google
is letting the air out of an in its so-called "moonshot Since then, more countries Bets." Those operations or Alphabet, Teller said. He
internet-beaming balloon factory," a division now that had little or no internet have suffered a combined didn't disclose how many
company that was provid- called X. Google, Loon and access now have gotten $12 billion in operating loss- of Alphabet's 132,000 em-
ing online access from the X all are owned by Alpha- more ways to get online es since 2016 while Google ployees, — most of whom
stratosphere. bet Inc., which draws upon partly because of the ex- has produced a combined work within Google — are
The plan to shut down Loon Google's digital advertising plosive growth of smart- operating profit of $140 bil- at Loon.q