Parler Blocked on Apple's App Store After US Capitol Riot Review 40413 Technology News

When it initially removed Parler from the App Store in January, Apple asked the social network to change its moderation practices. 51x2v

By William Turton and Mark Gurman, Bloomberg | Updated: 11 March 2021 10:54 IST

Parler Blocked on Apple's App Store After US Capitol Riot Review

Amazon Web Services cut ties with Parler, and Google and Apple removed Parler from their mobile app store 1y6h30

Highlights

Apple initially asked Parler to change its moderation practices
Parler’s new guidelines were insufficient to comply with App Store rules
Apple included several screenshots to the rejection

ment

Parler, the controversial conservative social media app, was denied re-entry to Apple's App Store recently after it was kicked off the platform in the wake of the January 6 Capitol riot, documents obtained by Bloomberg show.

On Wednesday, iOS developers, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company eliminated seven workers in total, most of whom were contractors. The other staff worked on Parler TV and quality assurance, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.

When it initially removed Parler from the Apple asked the social network to change its moderation practices. Apple said that Parler's new community guidelines, released when the service came back online Febraury 15, were insufficient to comply with the App Store rules.

After Google, Parler Now Kicked Out by Apple, Amazon

“After having reviewed the new information, we do not believe these changes are sufficient to comply with App Store Review guidelines” Apple wrote to Parler's chief policy officer on Febraury 25. “There is no place for hateful, racist, discriminatory content on the App Store.”

Apple included several screenshots to the rejection. Some screenshots, reviewed by Bloomberg, show profile pictures with swastikas and other white nationalist imagery, and names and posts that are misogynistic, homophobic, and racist.

“As you know, developers are required to implement robust moderation capabilities to proactively identify, prevent and filter this objectionable content to protect the health and safety of s,” Apple added in its letter to Parler, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg.

Parler CEO John Matze Says He Was Fired by Board

“In fact, simple searches reveal highly objectionable content, including easily identified offensive uses of derogatory regarding race, religion and sexual orientation, as well as Nazi symbols,” Apple wrote “For these reasons your app cannot be returned to the App Store for distribution until it complies with the guidelines.”

Parler's community guidelines were written by Chief Policy Officer Amy Peikoff, according to two people familiar with the matter. Parler did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Parler went offline following the riot at the US Capitol. Google and Apple removed Parler from their mobile app stores. The Parler website relaunched in February with from cloud hosting company SkySilk.
© 2021 Bloomberg LP

Are Amazonbasics TVs Good Enough to Beat Mi TVs in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, the episode, or just hit the play button below.

links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.