San Francisco, Jan 12 (IANS): Conservative social media app Parler has sued Amazon for terminating its web hosting services, saying an extended shutdown would be like "pulling the plug on a hospital patient on life support."

Parler claimed that Amazon Web Services (AWS), the Cloud arm of Amazon, severed ties to stop it from competing with the larger social platform Twitter, reports The Verge.

Amazon, however, said it is "troubled" by repeated policy violations by Parler.

Amazon said that it "cannot provide services to a customer that is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others."

Google and Apple have removed Parler from their respective app stores after they found that Parler did not take stronger action to remove posts that sought "to incite ongoing violence" in the US.

Parler CEO John Matze posted a statement, accusing Apple of applying a "horrible double standard" in its decision.

"Apple, Google and the rest of the anti-competitive pack of big tech tyrants coordinate their moves and work together to stifle competition in the marketplace," Matze said.

Parler is touted as a free-speech alternative, allowing posts that include conspiracy theories, threats and hate speech, among other things, to remain on the platform.