Social Media Site ‘Parler’ Banned From Google Play Store, Apple Store Next
Google has pulled social media site Parler from it’s App store, declaring that the recent home for free-speech activists and right-wing conservatives that have fled Facebook and Twitter failed to take strong enough action to remove posts that seek “to incite ongoing violence” in the U.S and declaring that “Parler is responsible for all user-generated content present on your service,” a ridiculous standard that not even they themsves uphold.
The move to strike against Parler comes as social media sites crack down on conservative figures, notably with Donald Trump being permanently banned from Twitter, along with General Flynn and Lawyer Sidney Powell, and being kicked off Facebook, Twitch, Instagram, Discord and anywhere where he may be visible.
According to Axios, a Google spokesperson has confirmed:
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.
All developers agree to these terms and we have reminded Parler of this clear policy in recent months.We recognize that there can be 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.
In a similar vein, Apple has threatened to pull the app from their store, sending a letter to Parler executives, demanding that the app submit to them a “moderation improvement plan” within 24 hours or face removal and termination from the app store.
With Parler being the largest alternative social media site that people are actually using, with over 4,000,000 active users, it is a crushing blow, with Google and Apple able to wield enormous power. Though the website can still be accessed via a browser (For now. perhaps not much longer) it can also be sideloaded via an APK (Instructions here.)
Parler’s owner has responded in defiance to the block from the social media giants, writing:
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