Apple removes Parler from App Store, after Google — 'we're toast,' says Parler

  • "We have always supported diverse points of view being represented on the App Store, but there is no place on our platform for threats of violence and illegal activity. Parler has not taken adequate measures to address the proliferation of these threats to people's safety."
    — Apple, in a statement late Saturday.

Apple just pulled the Parler app. Amy Peikoff, Parler's policy chief, said on Fox News last night: If Apple kicks us off the App Store, "we're toast."

They're toast.

"Apple said Parler is allowing too many posts that encourage violence and crimes. This follows a similar move from Google yesterday," tweeted the New York Times' Jack Nicas," Parler was one of the fastest-growing apps in the U.S., but now its future is in question."

From the New York Times report:

The moves by Apple and Google against Parler were part of a wider crackdown by tech companies on President Trump and some of his most extreme supporters after Wednesday's deadly riot in Washington. But unlike Twitter and Facebook, which make decisions about the content that appears on their own sites, Apple and Google weighed in on how other companies are operating.

Apple and Google make the operating systems that back nearly all of the world's smartphones. Now that the two companies have made it clear that they will take action against apps that don't sufficiently police what their users post, it could have significant side effects.

Several upstarts have courted Mr. Trump's supporters with promises of "unbiased" and "free speech" social networks, which have proven to be, in effect, free-for-all digital town squares where users hardly have to worry about getting banned for spreading conspiracy theories, making threats or posting hate speech. Apple and Google's tougher enforcement could preclude such apps from becoming realistic alternatives to the mainstream social networks. They now face the choice of either stepping up their policing of posts — undercutting their main feature in the process — or losing their ability to reach a wide audience.

More at the New York Times: Apple and Google Cut Off Parler, an App That Drew Trump Supporters