Parler Co-Owner: Site Could Be Back Up on Feb. 8

This illustration picture shows social media application logo from Parler displayed on a smartphone with its website in the background in Arlington, Va., on July 2, 2020. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

Things are looking good for a re-platform of the social media website Parler, a co-owner said late Thursday.

“We’re shooting for Monday,” co-owner Dan Bongino said on Fox News’s “Hannity.” “Monday looks good. Fingers crossed.”

Bongino didn’t provide any more information.

Parler, a competitor to Twitter, was deplatformed by Amazon Web Services last month. Amazon accused Parler of not properly moderating the platform.

Amazon’s action came after Google and Apple removed Parler’s applications from their app stores.

Parler sued Amazon in court. A judge rejected a request for an immediate restoration to the servers but the overall case hasn’t been ruled on.

Parler officials have been working on getting the site back online. A return was teased in mid-January by then-CEO John Matze, who said he was confident Parler would be back up by the end of the month.

Matze said Wednesday he was terminated as CEO by the company’s board.

“I understand that those who now control the company have made some communications to employees and other third parties that have unfortunately created confusion and prompted me to make this public statement,” he said in a memo obtained by The Epoch Times.

Parler co-founder and CEO John Matze in Washington on June 11, 2019. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

“Over the past few months, I’ve met constant resistance to my product vision, my strong belief in free speech, and my view of how the Parler site should be managed. For example, I advocated for more product stability and what I believe is a more effective approach to content moderation,” Matze added.

“Over the past few weeks, I have worked endless hours and fought constant battles to get the Parler site running but at this point, the future of Parler is no longer in my hands.”

Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and a current Fox News contributor, disputed Matze’s characterization.

Matze “makes two points, that ‘oh I was a big advocate for free speech it was my vision’ and ‘I was a big advocate for product stability.’ That is not true. That is not true. That is false,” Bongino said in a Facebook video, referring to the memo.

Bongino said that Matze’s statement “is an outrageous attack on people who have done nothing but work day and night to get this site back up and to fight back against these cancel culture goons. And to get knee-capped like this by someone we trusted is a disgrace.”

Rebekah Mercer, the daughter of hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer, is another co-owner of the site. She didn’t return an inquiry.

Mimi Nguyen Ly contributed to this report.