Parler’s social media app was denied re-entry to Apple’s App Store recently after it was removed the platform in January, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg News.
William Turton and Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
On Wednesday, Parler LLC cut its three remaining iOS developers, according to a person familiar with the matter. When it initially removed Parler from the App Store in January, Apple asked the social network to change its moderation practices. Apple said that Parler’s new community guidelines, released when the service came back online Feb. 15, were insufficient to comply with the App Store rules.
“After having reviewed the new information, we do not believe these changes are sufficient to comply with App Store Review guidelines” Apple wrote to Parler’s chief policy officer on Feb. 25. “There is no place for hateful, racist, discriminatory content on the App Store.”
MacDailyNews Take: Since there is no place for hateful, racist, discriminatory content on the App Store, Apple today also pulled the Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and all other social media apps.
Just kidding.
Apple included several screenshots to support the rejection. Some screenshots, reviewed by Bloomberg, show user profile pictures with swastikas and other white nationalist imagery, and user names and posts that are misogynistic, homophobic and racist.
MacDailyNews Take: Live on Twitter currently (the first one’s been there for six and a half years and counting, as per the oh-so “robust moderation capabilities,” if not timely, that Apple so desperately desires for inclusion in their App Store:
“As you know, developers are required to implement robust moderation capabilities to proactively identify, prevent and filter this objectionable content to protect the health and safety of users,” Apple added in its letter to Parler, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg.
“In fact, simple searches reveal highly objectionable content, including easily identified offensive uses of derogatory terms regarding race, religion and sexual orientation, as well as Nazi symbols,” Apple wrote. “For these reasons your app cannot be returned to the App Store for distribution until it complies with the guidelines.”
MacDailyNews Take: Also live on Twitter currently:
Wait, did some hypocrite cite “Nazi symbols?”
The Parler website relaunched in February with support from cloud hosting company SkySilk Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: Bloomberg News tries a little doxxing on for size.
Again, Apple’s stated reasoning for pulling Parler is fine, if applied uniformly.
But, Twitter, Facebook, etc. have never been suspended from Apple’s App Store. Why?
Why are the same sort of comments okay to exist on some services, but considered a ban-able offense – to the tune of the entire app – on others? What’s the difference? What does it reveal about those at Apple who are ultimately making the decisions when it’s ban-able “hate speech” on one platform, but left to fester for 6.5 years and counting on others?
Anyone who claims that Twitter, Facebook, etc. have robust content moderation in place that effectively removes harmful or dangerous content that encourages violence and illegal activity is either ignorant or lying.