House Oversight calls for Parler investigation

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) is requesting that the FBI investigate Parler and the social media platform’s role in the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection.

She also announced Thursday that her committee will look into Parler as part of a broader investigation of websites that may promote violence.

In a letter to the FBI she asked for the agency to examine Parler’s connections to the protest-turned-riot “including as a potential facilitator of planning and incitement related to the violence” and “as a repository of key evidence posted by users on its site.”

Parler, which has pitched itself as a haven for free speech, was rife with posts about storming the Capitol in the run-up to Jan. 6. Some Parler users have been arrested in connection to the insurrection, with their posts being used as evidence.

The platform has been down since then after being pulled from both the Apple and Google app stores and being dropped by Amazon’s web hosting service.

Parler reappeared earlier this week, but without any functionality.

Russian-based technology firm DDoS-Guard recently started providing services to the platform but claims not to be hosting it.

“Questions have also been raised about Parler’s financing and its ties to Russia, which the Intelligence Community has warned is continuing to use social media and other measures to sow discord in the United States and interfere with our democracy,” Maloney wrote in her letter to the FBI.