Google suspends Play Store’s social media app Parler; Apple gives a 24-hour notice

(Reuters) – Alphabet Google Inc. on Friday suspended social media service Parler from its app store, citing posts that incite violence and demanding “robust” content moderation from the app favored by many supporters of the app. President of the United States, Donald Trump.

Apple Inc. on Friday also gave the service 24 hours to present a detailed moderation plan, pointing out participants using the service to coordinate Wednesday’s siege on the U.S. Capitol building.

The actions of the two Silicon Valley companies mean that the network seen as a haven for people kicked out of Twitter may not be available for new downloads at the world’s top mobile app stores in a day. It would still be available in mobile browsers.

Right-leaning social media users in the U.S. have turned to Parler, the Telegram messaging app, and the handy social site Gab, citing the most aggressive police of political comments on conventional platforms like Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. Twitter permanently suspected President Trump on Friday.

By suspending the service, Google, whose software runs on Android phones, cited its policy against apps that promote violence and gave recent examples of Parler, including a Friday post that began “How We Recover Our Country “About twenty coordinated hits” and another promoting a “Million Militia March” in Washington.

Parler chief executive John Matze said Friday in a post that Apple was enforcing rules on Parler that did not apply to itself.

In a statement, Google said that “to distribute an app through Google Play, we need apps to implement sound moderation for blatant content. In light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat, we will suspend the application from the Play Store until it solves these problems “

In a letter from Apple’s App Store review team to Parler, seen by Reuters, Apple on Wednesday summoned participants in the crowd that stormed the U.S. Capitol building.

“Content that threatens the well-being of other people or is intended to incite violence or other illegal acts has never been acceptable in the App Store,” Apple said in the letter.

Apple gave Parler 24 hours to “remove all nasty content from your app … as well as any content that refers to personal injury or attacks on government facilities now or at any future date.” The company also required Parler to submit a written plan to “moderate and filter this content” from the app.

Apple declined to comment.

Matze, who describes himself as a libertarian, founded Parler in 2018 as a “free speech” alternative to conventional platforms, but began courting right-leaning users as Trump’s prominent supporters moved on. there.

Among those who have joined are commentator Candace Owens, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and right-wing activist Laura Loomer, who handcuffed themselves to the door of New York’s Twitter office on November 2018 to protest the site ban. In November, conservative activist Rebekah Mercer confirmed that she and her family, which includes her father and investor Robert Mercer, have provided funding to Parler.

“Apparently, they believe Parler is responsible for ALL user-generated content on Parler,” Matze said. “Therefore (by the same logic), Apple should be responsible for ALL actions taken by its phones. Apple should also be responsible for all car bombs, all illicit cell phone conversations, all illegal crimes committed on an iPhone, “he wrote.” The rules that do not apply to Twitter, Facebook or even Apple itself, apply to Parler. “