Google and Apple are taking steps to remove Parler, a hotspot for far-right extremists and Trump’s followers from its app store.
Apple has warned Parler to produce and implement a content moderation plan or risk its removal from the App Store.
In an email to Parler executives, Apple wrote: “We have received numerous complaints regarding objectionable content in your Parler service, accusations that the Parler app was used to plan, coordinate, and facilitate the illegal activities” in Washington DC.
“The app also appears to continue to be used to plan and facilitate yet further illegal and dangerous activities,”
Google has also suspended Parler from its Play Store “in light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat.”
The company reportedly issued a statement explaining the move, reminding that their guidelines require social media apps to have content moderation policies that remove posts inciting violence.
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They’ve found that Parler was being used as a grounds to encourage and even facilitate some of the Capitol Hill violence, and thus, removed it.
“In order to protect user safety on Google Play, our longstanding policies require that apps displaying user-generated content have moderation policies and enforcement that removes egregious content like posts that incite violence,” said a Google spokesperson in a statement to USA TODAY.
In response, Parler CEO John Matze wrote in the app that they will not “cave to pressure from anti-competitive actors.”
“We will not cave to pressure from anti-competitive actors! We will and always have enforced our rules against violence and illegal activity. But we WONT cave to politically motivated companies and those authoritarians who hate free speech!” he wrote in a message.
He added: “Anyone who buys an Apple phone is apparently a user. Apperently they know what is best for you by telling you which apps you may and may not use.”