Google has suspended the Parler social networking app from its Play Store until the platform, popular with many Donald Trump supporters, adds a “robust” content modification.
“Since Twitter has permanently suspended the US president’s account of the risk of further incitement to violence”, the search engine said it was blocking Parler and Apple gave the service 24 hours to submit a detailed moderation plan.
Parler is a social network to which many Trump supporters have migrated after banning themselves from platforms like Twitter. Pller for the protests in Washington DC that ended this week with the storms of the Capitol were widely shared on Parler.
The actions of the two Silicon Valley companies mean that Parler will not be available for new downloads on the world’s major mobile app stores within a day. It will still be available in mobile browsers.
Parler CEO John Matze said in his service on Friday that Apple applies standards to Parler that it does not apply to itself and that the companies are attacking civil liberties. He told Reuters in a text message: “Coordination of riots, violence and rebellion has no place on social media.”
Legal social media users in the United States flocked to Parler, the messaging program Telegram and the social networking site Gab, citing the more aggressive policing of political commentary on mainstream platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
In suspending the service, Google, whose software uses Android phones, cited its policy against apps that promote violence and cited recent examples from Parler, including a Friday report that began: ‘How do we take back our country? ? About 20 or so coordinated hits and another promoting a “Million Militia march” on Washington.
In a statement, Google said that ‘for us to distribute an app through Google Play, we require apps to apply robust moderation to serious content. In light of this ongoing and urgent threat to public safety, we are suspending the articles’ offerings from the Play Store until it addresses these issues ”.
Seen in a letter from Apple’s App Store review team to Parler, Apple names participants in the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday.
“Content that threatens the well-being of others or is intended to incite violence or other lawless acts has never been acceptable in the App Store,” Apple said in the letter.
Apple has given Parler 24 hours to “remove all offensive content from your app … as well as any content that refers to damage to people or attacks on government facilities now or at any future date”.
The company also demanded that Parler submit a written plan to moderate and filter the content from the app.
Apple declined to comment.
Describing himself as a libertarian, Matze founded Parler in 2018 as a ‘freedom of speech-driven’ alternative to mainstream platforms, but began using legitimate users as prominent Trump supporters moved there.
Those who joined include commentator Candace Owens, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and legal activist Laura Loomer, who handcuffed her to the door of Twitter’s New York office in 2018 to ban her on the site. to argue. In November, conservative activist Rebekah Mercer confirmed that she and her family, which includes her father and hedge fund investor Robert Mercer, provided financing to Parler.
Matze said of Apple: ‘They apparently believe that Parler is responsible for ALL user-generated content on Parler. By the same token, Apple should be responsible for ALL actions that their phones take. Apple must also be responsible for every car bomb, every illegal cell phone call, every illegal crime committed on an iPhone. ”