Texas Attorney General Demands Big Tech Explain Shunning of Parler

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Big Tech has some explaining to do to assure Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that this week’s take-down of Parler LLC isn’t a political hit job on a conservative social media upstart.

“The public deserves the truth about how these companies moderate and possibly eliminate speech they disagree with,” Paxton said in a statement Wednesday announcing formal requests for information from Google, Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. about their content moderation policies and practices.

Google and Apple removed Parler from their app stores after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and Amazon suspended its web-hosting service for the platform over concern that it has failed to effectively police violent content. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, meanwhile, have blocked President Donald Trump’s accounts in his final days in office.

Paxton, a Republican and a staunch supporter of Trump, said his interest is in making sure the internet is a level playing field for free speech.

Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/texas-attorney-general-demands-big-224755227.html

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Oh go fuck yourself Paxton.

[relayerbob]

1. I would answer with two words: Free Market

[machoneman]

19. My two word answer to Kenny-boy would be: Pound Sand!

[relayerbob]

27. Those would work, too

[spudspud]

50. "Nuts!"

[relayerbob]

51. Classic, short, to the point.

Might even remind them of the last time we dealt with fascists. But that assumes they read

[Jack from Charlotte]

56. Dec 22, 1944. The Most famous one-word reply in military history.....

Well done, Spuds

[spudspud]

65. Thank you sir!

[OldBaldy1701E]

62. There is nothing funnier

than watching the same people who have been screaming those same two words in regards to being regulated are now screaming about regulations. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Paxton Unfairness Doctrine

More Republican whining and victimhood

P*ssy!

[iluvtennis]

21. +++ agree. nt

[captain queeg]

3. Isn't this a free market issue? The rethugs like that, a company can choose who it deals with right

[Frerotte]

4. Violence is Bad for Business

Free market is responding to institutional violence in a way never seen before.

I applaud this.

[FreepFryer]

5. Oh Ken Ken Ken, not only will your pardon be illegal, you are going to jail (Nt)

[Lonestarblue]

32. Oh please, please let it be so! I am so sick of him and his idiot comments and acrions.

[Pantagruel]

6. Consider

There's supposedly 10's of thousands of threats of violence archived on Parler, should be an easy sell to any fair minded judge.

[Ferrets are Cool]

7. Ironic when your own policy bites ya in the arse

Or would that be poetic justice?

[groundloop]

8. If he's so insistent on a level playing field I'm sure he lobbied in favor of Net Neutrality

[grumpyduck]

9. Ken, why don't you just crawl back into that

hog-feeding trough you came out from?

Maybe even the hogs will turn away in disgust.

[msongs]

10. actually parler is PAid speech not free speech. they make money from it nt

[dlk]

11. As I've said before, the free market has spoken

Get over it!

[stillcool]

12. District Attorney needs a refresher course.

[NCjack]

23. Sounds like he has skin in the game.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

31. He has in deep doo-doo under a kind of corruption lawsuit against him. . . . nt

[Raven123]

13. Religious freedom

[keithbvadu2]

14. Doesn't the RW have some billionaires who own some of these social media companies?

Doesn't the RW have some billionaires who own some of these social media companies?

[mdbl]

15. "The public deserves the truth"

spoken like the true hypocritical asshole you are Paxton. That stupid ass site parler probably didn't have one post on it that wasn't a lie, other than they were going to attack the capital. Go F yourself you stupid ass clown.

[walkingman]

16. Paxton reflects the mentality of a lot of these hillbillies we have here in Texas. He is

definitely looking for a pardon from Trump. Not sure it will be necessary because I seriously doubt that any Judge and definitely not the Texas Supreme Court will ever convict him. A true "good ole boy" that has the total support of the Texas elected GOP and rank and file GOP voters.

[Marthe48]

17. I hope Google and Apple use simple words

otherwise it'll go right over his a**hat

[badboy67]

18. Garbage lawsuit incoming???

[The Wizard]

20. I guess he never read the First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
If he thinks Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are Congress he' should be disbarred.

[Best_man23]

22. I'd have my data miners go thru the Parler data

And see if Paxton was a Parler user. My bet is he was and probably had a few posts he might not want to see the light of day.

[tanyev]

24. Hey, Ken, how about you explain your still unresolved indictment for securities fraud

and the allegations from seven high level employees in the Texas AG office that you abused your position and accepted bribes?

[Grokenstein]

25. What part of this is he pretending to not understand?

[muntrv]

26. Private property, Kenny!

[dalton99a]

28. This indicted criminal needs to be tried and sentenced.

[Gothmog]

29. No pays any attention to Paxton

[flying_wahini]

57. Gov Abbott does.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

30. Paxton, you grandstander, read the Terms of Service of each of your targets. Then shut up. . . nt

[Nitram]

33. Just read Amazon's collection of deaths threats posted on Parler in connection with the Capitol

insurrection and attempted coup.

“Fry’em up. The whole fkn crew. #pelosi #aoc #thesquad #soros #gates #chuckschumer #hrc #obama #adamschiff #blm #antifa we are coming for you and you will know it.”

“#JackDorsey ... you will die a bloody death alongside Mark Suckerturd [Zuckerberg].... It has been decided and plans are being put in place. Remember the photographs inside your home while you slept? Yes, that close. You will die a sudden death!”

“We are going to fight in a civil War on Jan.20th, Form MILITIAS now and acquire targets.”
“On January 20th we need to start systematicly [sic] assassinating [sic] #liberal leaders, liberal activists, #blm leaders and supporters, members of the #nba #nfl #mlb #nhl #mainstreammedia anchors and correspondents and #antifa. I already have a news worthy event planned.”

“Shoot the police that protect these shitbag senators right in the head then make the senator grovel a bit before capping they ass.”

“After the firing squads are done with the politicians the teachers are next.”

“Death to @zuckerberg @realjeffbezos @jackdorsey @pichai.”

“White people need to ignite their racial identity and rain down suffering and death like a hurricane upon zionists.”

“Put a target on these motherless trash [Antifa] they aren’t human taking one out would be like stepping on a roach no different.”

“We need to act like our forefathers did Kill [Black and Jewish people] all Leave no victims or survivors.”

“We are coming with our list we know where you live we know who you are and we are coming for you and it starts on the 6th civil war... Lol if you will think it’s a joke... Enjoy your last few days you have.”

“This bitch [Stacey Abrams] will be good target practice for our beginners.”

“This cu** [United States Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao] should be... hung for betraying their country.”

“Hang this mofo [Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger] today.”

“HANG THAt N***** ASAP”

https://www.pacermonitor.com/view/LHNWTAI/Parler_LLC_v_Amazon_Web_Services_Inc__wawdce-21-00031__0010.0.pdf

[LiberalLovinLug]

47. The defense should just have someone read out loud this entire text

[dlk]

34. Paxton needs to explain why he's not in prison

He’s a criminal

[uberblonde]

35. Ken's auditioning.

He wants a Trump pardon REAL bad!

[TomSlick]

36. Wait,what? The State Attorney General?

Never mind. I forgot about his lawsuit in the Supreme Court to overturn other States' elections.

His Wikipedia page says he graduated from UVa Law. That seems incredible.

[Talitha]

37. Hey Paxton - assure me that the coup attempt of Jan 9 2021 wasn't a political hit job.

And like the OP said.... "Oh go fuck yourself Paxton."

[Marrah_Goodman]

38. No company wants to be associated with terrorists and traitors.

[marlakay]

39. Well I guess they have to get into tech

Then...better than they are now.

Not that FB or Twitter hasn't done plenty wrong.

[DBoon]

40. Paxton's idea of free speech is making death threats to liberals

Plotting the murder of your political opponents is the extent of their discourse

[turbinetree]

41. Fuck you and the horse you ride on..........

since we all know what the horses name is..............are you not also under indictment...........

[marble falls]

42. How's he going to prosecute them from prison?

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

43. He should just stick his head down in a hole in the sand

like the rest of those republican ostrich syndrome cowboys.

[DallasNE]

44. First Of All, This AG Doesn't Appear To Know What Free Speech Means

He needs to research the Supreme Court cases on speech that is not covered by the 1st Amendment. Then he needs to read what the companies have already said on the subject. That would answer most of his questions. But that is not the purpose of his request and everybody know that. The companies should just reissue their earlier statements. Parlor, after all, was used to plot the deadly attack on the Capitol building. Apparently the Texas AG wants another deadly attack plotted on Parlor.

But then this is the same half-wit that asked the Supreme Court to overturn the election results in 6 battleground states.

[TeamPooka]

45. Answer: we're private companies. fuck you.

[cannabis_flower]

46. They don't owe Ken "Felony" Paxton anything!

[LiberalLovinLug]

48. You know what? I DO TOO

I want these big companies to explain themselves!

Because their silence leaves the door open for asshats like Paxton to foment his own narrative for Trump.

I want them to explain to the brain dead, and the rest of the public too, out loud on network hews, how capitalism works. How much leeway a private company has to set its own rules and standards. And if someone violates those standards, they don't want their business.

Then read out a few pages of quotes from Parler from the red hats.

[Ellipsis]

49. Paxton can get bent.

[patphil]

52. Paxton has a lot more splain' to do than those big tech companies.

He is supposed to be an Attorney General, but he comes across more like a lieutenant in the Trump crime organization.

Free speech isn't an excuse for hate speech and threats of violence that are common on Parler. I'd love to see this go to court and watch the judge eat Paxton's lunch.
Not that he would ever have a lunch worth eating...it's just a saying. Sort of like saying the shit is gonna hit the fan. It never really does that, at least I've never actually see it happen.
But, Paxton isn't really ready for the problems he is causing for himself. His support for Trump's false claim of election fraud could cause him to be charged with inciting an insurrection.
Now that would be a case where the feces done impinged on the impeller and Paxton was in the way. It would probably improve his overall smell.

[apnu]

53. All the TOS, AUP, and/or EULA is going to be tested now.

TOS: Terms of Service
AUP: Acceptable Use Police
EULA: End-User License Agreement.

These are all names for that long legalese you see before signing up to use any service on the Internet.

I've read them, on occasion, they all say basically the same thing: The provider has the right to pull the service if they ever think the service is being used unacceptably or illegally. They also state that the service is privately owned and they reserve the right to retain any and all logs of the use of the service for legal matters.

Everybody who uses anything agrees to this. Every smartphone owner has agreed with Google or Apple on a TOS and use of their software and cloud services. Parler agreed to this when it purchased AWS cloud services for hosting. And again with Twilio for authentication services.

Paxton is a fucking idiot and will get laughed out of court on this.

[onetexan]

54. And we demand you explain why you're under investigation by your own staff.

Moron

[Major Nikon]

55. ...with a cactus

Funny how these looneytarian shitstains abandon their “free market solution” principles when they actually work.

[BlueIdaho]

58. Paxton burns through taxpayer money

With zero chance of success - it’s all a just a big vanity project.

[MineralMan]

59. "No Standing," Dude.

He has no legal standing in this matter.

[area51]

60. Paxton still seeks relevancy;

probably desperate for a 2024 presidential bid.

[eppur_se_muova]

61. He's just signalling which side he's on -- a little taste of red meat for The Base. nt

[displacedtexan]

63. "Big Tech" should send Paxton hard copies of their User Agreements.

That's all they have to do besides issue a press release stating that they replied to Paxton's request & include copies of their User Agreements.

[modrepub]

64. Terms of Usage Agreement

read it before you click...