What happened to the Parler app that was supposed to return at the end of January?

Toward the end of last month, we wrote about Parler after its CEO John Matze said he was ‘confident’ the platform will return back fully by month’s end after series of positive developments. With January behind us, everyone is wondering what happened to the Parler app.

Since the Parler’s app is no longer available in Google Play and Apple’s AppStore, we visited Parler’s website to see if there were any updates. Surprisingly, the most recent post was from Parler’s CEO John Matze. The post, which was dated January 26, is a meme of Senator Sander sitting quietly on a chair on Inauguration Day. So, what happened to the January 31 return date John spoke about? No one knows at this point.

January was a rough month for Parler. The free speech app struggled to stay alive after censorships by Amazon, Apple, and Google. Parler also faced another setback after a federal judge rejected its demand that Amazon.com restore its web hosting services.

In rendering her verdict, U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle said Parler failed to show it was likely to prevail on the merits of its claims, or that the public interest supported a preliminary injunction requiring the restoration of service. Amazon said it removed Parler off AWS, its web-hosting service, following reports that rioters who seized the US Capitol last week had used Parler to organize and incite violence.

Now, the company’s future remains uncertain as some media outlets are questioning the future survival of the free speech app after it was dropped by Amazon, Apple, and Google. Meanwhile, in an ironic way, Parler found a reprieve in Russia after DDoS-Guard, a Russian digital infrastructure company, agreed to its servers.

Parler, which dubbed itself as an alternative to Twitter and Facebook, was founded in 2018 by John Matze and Jared Thomson as a “town square,” where people could freely express their views without fear of being “de-platformed.” The irony of it was that the platform itself got de-platformed by Amazon.

Amazon pulled the plug on Parler’s servers over the accusations that the platform helped incite the January 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol. Amazon’s decision to shut down all Parler servers came a few days after Apple and Google removed Parler from their app stores.

Parler’s website came back online just a week after Amazon shuts down the “free speech” social app. Parler CEO said he’s ‘confident’ that his social media platform will return by the end of January following a weekend of positive developments.

In the first update when the static page came online, Matze wrote:

“Hey is this thing on? Now seems like the right time to remind you all — both lovers and haters — why we started this platform. We believe privacy is paramount and free speech essential, especially on social media. Our aim has always been to provide a nonpartisan public square where individuals can enjoy and exercise their rights to both. We will resolve any challenge before us and plan to welcome all of you back soon. We will not let civil discourse perish!”

“We’re going to be putting periodic updates there,” Matze said “We’re going to try to get an update out every day… so that people can stay up to date with the site.”