Parler, the social media platform once embraced by former President Donald Trump and his supporters, is set to return to Apple’s app store on Monday — but with some changes curtailed for Apple.
Apple users — like those with iPhones — won’t see posts identified by Parler’s moderation system as “hate,” according to The Washington Post. “There’s a different standard for people who look at Parler on other smartphones or on the web: They will be able to see posts marked as ‘hate,’ which includes racial slurs, by clicking through to see them,” the Post reported.
When it removed Parler from the app store in January, Apple said the social media platform had broken Apple’s rules against objectionable content. The tech company later said in April that it would allow Parler back on the app store after it updated its content moderation processes, the Deseret News reported.
- “The entire Parler team has worked hard to address Apple’s concerns without compromising our core mission,” interim Parler CEO Mark Meckler told the The Verge in a statement Monday. “Anything allowed on the Parler network but not in the iOS app will remain accessible through our web-based and Android versions. This is a win-win for Parler, its users and free speech.”
- “At Parler we embrace the entire First Amendment, meaning freedom of expression and conscience are protected,” said Amy Peikof, Parler’s chief policy officer and lead content moderator, the Post reported. “We permit a maximum amount of legally protected speech.”
- Parler has said the app’s algorithm will “automatically detect violent or inciting content, while still preserving user privacy. Such content has always violated Parler’s guidelines,” according to The Verge.
Is Parler still banned by Google and Amazon?
Earlier this year, the social media company became a harbor for ideas and people — including former President Donald Trump after he was kicked off Twitter and Facebook — that had been removed from similar social networking platforms.
- But its all-encompassing freedom of speech policy and lack of moderation eventually led Apple, Amazon and Google to deplatform the app in the wake of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot of Trump’s supporters.
- Parler is still banned on Google, The Verge reported.
- Parler has also sued Amazon several times after it was banished from Amazon’s application platform following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, reported Reuters.