Alternative social media platform Parler has been booted out of Amazon, Google, and Apple in the last 24 hours after being accused of proliferating violent content among its users.
Parler has been the favored social media platform of conservative groups including pro-Trump supporters who stormed the United States Capitol last January 6 that left at least five people dead and injured many others.
Parler’s website went offline early Monday morning (January 11) after Amazon pulled support for the so-called “free speech” social network at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday.
The alternative social media platform had been reliant on the tech giant’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing service to provide its alternative to Twitter.
Amazon said they pulled the plug on Parler after finding dozens of posts on the service which encouraged violence.
Meanwhile, Parler promptly sued Amazon to get back online, telling a federal judge that the tech giant had breached its contract and abused its market power.
On Saturday, Apple also dropped Parler from its App store claiming that the social media app was fostering calls to violence before and after pro-Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol.
“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. We have suspended Parler from the App Store until they resolve these issues,” Apple announced on Saturday.
Prior to the removal from the App Store, Apple demanded that Parler remove content in violation of its policies and provide a plan on how it would moderate content within 24 hours.
However, despite some actions made by Parler, it has yet to satisfy the demands of Apple.
As a result, Apple said, “the processes Parler has put in place to moderate or prevent the spread of dangerous and illegal content have proved insufficient.”
The tech giant also stressed that Parler will not return to the App Store until it has “demonstrated ability to effectively moderate and filter the dangerous and harmful content on the service.”
Google was the first platform to remove Parler from its Play Store after violating its policies.
“In order to protect user safety on Google Play, our longstanding policies require that apps displaying user-generated content have moderation policies and enforcement that removes egregious content like posts that incite violence,” Google said in a press statement.
According to Google developers using the Play Store agree to these terms and they have reminded Parler of this clear policy in recent months.
“We’re aware of continued posting in the Parler app that seeks to incite ongoing violence in the US. We recognize that there can be a reasonable debate about content policies and that it can be difficult for apps to immediately remove all violative content, but for us to distribute an app through Google Play, we do require that apps implement robust moderation for egregious content. In light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat, we are suspending the app’s listings from the Play Store until it addresses these issues,” the tech giant said in a statement.
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