The chief executive officer of Parler LLC says he\u2019s gone into hiding after receiving death threats.<\/p>\n
John Matze Jr.\u2019s social media platform was briefly the new home to conservative supporters of Donald Trump who flocked to it after Twitter banned the president. But Parler went dark Sunday after Apple Inc. and Google removed it from their their app stores and Amazon.com Inc. pulled the plug on its web-hosting service, citing violent content that the e-commerce giant says played into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany Parler employees are suffering harassment and hostility, fear for their safety and that of their families, and in some cases have fled their home state to escape persecution,\u201d Matze\u2019s lawyer said in Parler\u2019s lawsuit aimed at forcing Amazon Web<\/span> Services to put the platform back online. Matze had to \u201cgo into hiding with his family after receiving death threats and invasive personal security breaches.\u201d The CEO didn\u2019t specify the source of the threats, but his lawyer said in a filing that Matze\u2019s covert action was required because he\u2019s been spotlighted \u201cas the CEO of the company AWS continues to vilify.\u201d<\/p>\n Matze\u2019s move comes after Amazon earlier this week said its employees, too, have been threatened — by Parler users. \u201cBoth sides of this dispute have shown that their employees have suffered real harassment and threats — including, on both sides, death threats — owing to the charged nature of this litigation,\u201d according to Parler\u2019s filing, which was reported earlier by Fox News.<\/p>\n Read More: Parler Fails to Win Quick Reprieve With Lawyer New to Technology<\/p>\n