Apple has pulled Parler from the App Store, just hours after the free speech Twitter rival hit No.1 on Apple’s top free apps chart.
Apple said in a statement on Saturday evening, “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.”
MacDailyNews Take: Which, of course, is why Apple today also pulled Twitter and Facebook.
Just kidding (even though this is no laughing matter).
Parler logo“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,” reads a statement from the company on Saturday evening.
Apparently, Parler did propose some changes, but Apple decided they weren’t sufficient, according to a statement Apple sent to Parler alongside its final decision to remove the app. It states that “the processes Parler has put in place to moderate or prevent the spread of dangerous and illegal content have proved insufficient,” and that Parler will not return to the App Store until it has “demonstrated your ability to effectively moderate and filter the dangerous and harmful content on your service.”
MacDailyNews Take: It’s a sad day.
Apple’s reasoning for pulling Parler is fine, if applied uniformly.
However, Apple’s stated reason for pulling Parler clearly dictates that the company also pull Twitter, Facebook, and any number of other apps, as anyone who’s used them for any amount of time knows. Yet Apple has hypocritically failed to do so, revealing a lack of thought and/or ulterior motive.
Despite Apple’s regrettable attempt to implement these glorious Information Purification Directives, Parler remains accessible online via any web browser, even Apple’s Safari, here: https://parler.com/
Art and music, design and performance, opinion, fiction, provocation, are what we work to enable. That fills us with such a sense of pride as well as a deep sense of responsibility because we know that these freedoms require protection; not just the forms of speech that entertain us, but the ones that challenge us, the ones that unnerve and even displease us. They’re the ones that need protection the most. Unpopular speech, unpopular art, and unpopular ideas; speech that questions the people in power.
It’s no accident that these freedoms are enshrined and protected in the First Amendment. They’re the foundation of so many of our rights. We means we all have a stake, and a role, in defending them. This is a responsibility that Apple takes very seriously… We work to defend these freedoms enabling people around the world to speak up. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, accepting the Newseum’s “Free Expression” Award in November 2017
By the way, all of these “social media” platforms – Twitter, Parler, Facebook – are cancers on society. They are clearly eating society from the inside out. There’s something unsavory within human nature that “digital distance” amplifies to the point of disgust.
If you quit these cancers you will quickly realize what they are and what they do. You will be happier and healthier to have excised them from your life.
We haven’t had personal Twitter or Facebook accounts for many years now. And very happily so.
Lastly, consumers of “news” should seek it from disparate sources in order to arrive at some semblance of the truth.
As always, the best way to consume “news” is to cast a wide net. The wider, the better.
Readers of “news” need to consider the sources and interpret what they are being told accordingly. The more disparate sources you can find, the better. And we don’t mean different newspaper, network, website brands that are all owned by the same conglomerate. Determining the actual ownership of your “news” sources is an investment that requires a bit of time, but it is very enlightening. — MacDailyNews Take, June 17, 2015
