Apple CEO Tim Cook defended his company’s decision to remove the Parler social media app from its store, claiming there were concerns about potential threats of violence from its users.
In a clip from an interview with Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace, who launched on Friday, Cook said the company found security threats in Parler, and that exempted the relatively new social media platform from First Amendment protections.
“We look at the incitement to violence that was there, and we don’t think that freedom of speech and incitement to violence have one, have an intersection,” Cook said.
The executive added that Apple just suspended Parler and, if “they manage to moderate, they would go back there.”
Apple announced that it removed Parler from its App Store last week, just after the US Capitol riot on January 6 that left five people dead in Washington, DC
Prior to the removal, Apple gave Parler a 24-hour notice seeking a “moderation improvement plan”, saying the company had received complaints about the application’s content and cited accusations that users planned to coordinate and pursue illegal activities in the area Washington before the riot.
Google took similar action, suspending the app from its Google Play store last week due to similar concerns.
Parler was launched in 2018 by GOP megadonador Rebekah Mercer, developer John Matze and programmer Jared Thomson. It was the most downloaded app between November 9 and 15, 2020, according to SensorTower, a marketing intelligence company that tracks app downloads. As of December 2020, Parler had more than 300,000 downloads.
The app has been widely preferred by conservative talk show hosts and Republican lawmakers who praised the app for its free speech policies after Twitter increased its fact-checking and content monitoring ahead of the 2020 elections.
Earlier this month, Twitter also removed more than 70,000 accounts linked to the conspiracy group QAnon, as well as the @realDonaldTrump account, which belonged to President Trump. Other social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, also suspended Trump, citing that his posts had the potential to incite more violence after the riot.
Trump’s last day in office will be on Wednesday. The president said he will not attend the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and that Trump is expected to leave the district before the events begin.