Parler, the controversial conservative social media app, was again denied access to him Apple Inc. ‘s App Store recently after it was kicked off the platform following the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, documents obtained by Bloomberg show.
On Wednesday, According to a person familiar with the matter, Parler LLC has cut its three remaining iOS developers. The company eliminated a total of seven workers, most of whom were contractors. The other staff worked on Parler TV and quality assurance, said the person, who asked not to be identified, discussed private matters.
When it initially removed Parler from the App Store in January, Apple asked the social network to change the moderation. Apple said Parler’s new community guidelines, which were released when the service went online again on February 15 and was not sufficient to comply with the App Store rules.
“After reviewing the new information, we do not believe that these changes are sufficient to meet the guidelines for the App Store Review,” Apple wrote to Parler’s chief executive on February 25. ‘There’s no place for hateful, racist, discriminatory content across the App Store. ”
Apple has included several screenshots to support the rejection. Some screenshots, reviewed by Bloomberg, show user profile photos with hook boxes and other white nationalist images, and usernames and posts that are misogynistic, homophobic, and racist.
“As you know, developers need to implement robust moderation features to proactively identify, prevent, and filter this offensive content to protect the health and safety of users,” Apple added in its letter to Parler, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg is.
“In fact, simple searches reveal highly offensive content, including easily offensive use of derogatory terms regarding race, religion, or sexual orientation, as well as Nazi symbols,” Apple wrote. Store for distribution until it meets the guidelines. ”
Parler’s community guidelines were written by Amy Peikoff, chief policy officer, according to two people familiar with the matter. Parler did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
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Parler is offline following the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Amazon Web Services severed ties with Parler, and Google and Apple removed Parler from their mobile app stores. The Parler website was launched in February with support from cloud hosting company SkySilk Inc.
(Updates describing screenshots in fifth paragraph.)