Apple Will Have Mercy on Parler

Highly popular among conservative audiences, Parler social app will be restored on Apple App Store, the company promises. So it follows from the answer Apple sent to Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Ken Buck. The latter calls this “a big win for free speech” on his Twitter page.

Parler, a social media alternative to mainstream platforms like Twitter, is especially popular among conservative audience, especially Donald Trump supporters. Its ban by Apple and Google followed immediately after Parler turned out to be the place for coordinating storming of the Capitol, in January 2021. It has also been banned by Amazon and completely unavailable until it found the new hoster.

It’s not clear, though, when Parler will be installable again and what steps it requires from the media itself. Apple answers that it is negotiating the terms with Parler, which means the media is supposed to fix its policy that led to its ban. This will include heavier moderation and banning potentially dangerous posts which Apple classifies as “hateful, racist, discriminatory”.

As for Google, it does not return Parler on Play Store or even comment on this, though the Android app is available from alternative sources. The official Parler site has issued the instruction on how to download and activate the app. With Apple, this is obviously not the way.