Parler returns as a simple static website - with help from Russia

But the app remains banned on app stores

Parler, the social networking platform popular among Donald Trump's supporters, has managed to make a partial comeback on the web with the help of a Russian technology firm.

According to Reuters, Parler's website was reachable again on Sunday, although it showed only one message from the CEO, John Matze, who said that his team was working hard to restore full functionality of the service.

"Hello world, is this thing on?" Matze wrote in the first update on the static website.

"Our return is inevitable due to hard work, and persistence against all odds," he added.

Addressing both "lovers and haters" of the social networking platform, Matze said it was the right time to explain why Parler was started.

"We believe privacy is paramount and free speech essential, especially on social media," he said.

"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!"

Last week, AWS removed Parler from its platform, over the company's failure to act quickly enough against violent content. The move came after the revelation that the Capitol Hill rioters used Parler to help organise the attack on 6th January, which left five people dead.

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

Apple and Google took similar decisions - suspending Parler from their respective app stores over its sloppy approach to content moderation.

Parler CEO John Matze described those actions as "a coordinated attack by the tech giants to kill competition in the marketplace".

Before its removal from AWS, Parler was seen as a haven for people censored by other social media platforms. Thanks to its hands-off approach to policing user content, the platform became an ideal spot for Trump supporters to post messages celebrating violence, encouraging "patriots" to march on Washington, DC with weapons on 19th January.

According to Reuters, Parler has now registered its domain with host sharing website Epik, a domain already known for hosting far-right extremist content. Parler is using an IP address owned by DDoS-Guard, a firm controlled by two Russian men.

DDoS-Guard claims to offer protection from distributed denial of service attacks. As well as Parler, its clients include many right-wing conspiracy sites, and the Russian ministry of defence. DDoS-Guard registered under a partnership called Cognitive Cloud LP, registered in Edinburgh.

In an interview with Fox News, Matze said that he was "confident" that Parler would return at the end of January.

On Sunday, Apple CEO Tim Cook told Fox News that Parler could return to Apple's App Store if it promises to properly moderate posts on the platform.

"We looked at the incitement to violence that was on there, and we don't consider that free speech and incitement to violence has an intersection," Cook said.

"We have an app store that has about two million apps in it," he stated.

"We obviously don't control what's on the Internet. But we've never viewed that our platform should be a simple replication of the internet. We have rules and regulations and we just ask that people abide by those."