This is Rostov-on-Don.

Most Americans have probably never heard of this city in southern Russia.

But Parler users are probably better off remembering its name.

A small local IT company helped restore a long-suffering platform that was removed from the Internet after an angry crowd marched through the Capitol building in Washington.

Parler was especially popular with conservatives and Trump supporters.

The platform was accused of harboring radicals and conspiracy theorists, which allegedly led to the January 6 violence.

Apple, Google and Amazon shut down what many saw as an alternative to popular social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

  • Reuters

  • © Shannon Stapleton

During US election week, Parler was the most downloaded app in the country.

The number of users has skyrocketed, from under 1 million to over 15 million in 2020.

And when many already believed that the platform had completely disappeared, Parler unexpectedly returned - the Russians helped him.

“We do not represent any hacking organization and do not do anything related to hacking activities.

We have an information security service.

Global content protection around the world, ”explains Evgeny Marchenko, CEO of DDoS-GUARD.

This place doesn't look like a secret bunker at some suspicious KGB facility.

When asked how it came about that the Russian company began to provide services to the social network Parler, Marchenko replies: “The fact is that this is not our decision.

We didn't invite them on purpose.

We did not contact them before they became our customers.

This is their choice.

That is, probably, out of all the services that they could find on the scale of the entire world Internet, they chose us, for ... Well, they probably had many reasons for this. "

At first Parler was completely blocked.

Then they managed to restore the page of this site.

“We made it possible for them to distribute the content they now have.

Yes, this is a small page.

But nevertheless, it is quite difficult to block it with the forces of some American IT companies on our resources.

Because we are independent from American IT giants.

We are independent from the American government.

We are independent from anyone else, ”continues the CEO of the company.

However, the Russian company is receiving anonymous threats, says Marchenko, in connection with the fact that it is helping Parler.

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"In this case, it's a VPN address located in the United States of America," says Marchenko.

“The bulwark of the absence of censorship, the bulwark of democracy creates a certain mechanism that can be called a switch that can be turned off at any time.

And, in fact, we see the formation of a unified American firewall, ”the head of the company notes.

Recall that the social network Parler, created in 2018, faced problems from American IT giants after the events of January 6, when a large-scale rally of supporters of the 45th US President Donald Trump took place in Washington.

The action was timed to coincide with a meeting dedicated to the approval of the results of the 2020 presidential election, which was won by Joe Biden.

The rally escalated into riots, protesters broke into the Capitol building.

The clashes killed five people, including a police officer.

After the attempt to storm the Capitol, the microblogging service came under pressure from the largest US IT companies.

The app was removed from the App Store and Google Play for “insufficient moderation”.

At the same time, critics called the actions of IT corporations a violation of freedom of speech.

The DDoS-GUARD website says they have been "the market leader in DDoS protection and content delivery services since 2011."

It is emphasized that DDoS-GUARD "does not resell the services of third-party companies, passing them off as their own."

“Our priority is the stability of the functioning of client resources,” the Rostov company says.

- Starting our way with providing a mass service, we continue to make it reliable, convenient and affordable for the client.

This is our mission that unites the DDoS-GUARD team. "

Working with a client like Parler is not officially considered a crime.

But this is definitely a risk.