Amid continued calls for President Donald Trump to take responsibility for his role in spurring Wednesday’s attack on the U.S. Capitol, Google announced on Friday that it withdrew from its app store Parler – a media platform social described as “where the extreme right’s grudge thrives” —Quoting “continuous posts … that seek to incite continuing violence in the US”
“To protect user safety on Google Play, our longstanding policies require that apps that display user-generated content have moderation and enforcement policies that remove blatant content, such as posts that incite violence,” said a spokesman Of google. “All developers agree to these terms and we have reminded Parler of this clear policy in recent months.”
“We are aware of ongoing posts on the Parler app that seek to incite continuing violence in the United States,” the statement continued. “In light of this continuing and urgent threat to public safety, we are suspending the app’s listings on the Play Store until it resolves these issues.”
Now ban him permanently from office through impeachment and conviction.
– Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) January 8, 2021
Arusha Gordon, associate director of the James Byrd Jr. Center to Stop Hate on the Civil Rights Lawyers Committee under the Act, welcomed the development. “It is time for companies to enforce their terms of use and ensure that their products are not used by white supremacists and others to organize violent attacks on our democracy,” she said.
Google’s announcement came after Apple’s threat on Friday to ban Parler within 24 hours, unless the social media app presents an updated plan to moderate its content amid Parler’s accusations being a key means for facilitate Wednesday’s failed coup effort.
“We received numerous complaints about objectionable content on your Parler service, allegations that the Parler app was used to plan, coordinate and facilitate illegal activities in Washington DC on January 6, 2021 that led (among other things) to loss of life, countless injuries and destruction of property, “Apple wrote to Parler, according to BuzzFeed news. “The app also appears to continue to be used to plan and facilitate even more illegal and dangerous activities.”
President Trump is such a threat to this country that there is a realistic fear that if he is allowed to tweet, he will support an attack on the government. Take it out now.
– Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) January 9, 2021
The events occurred on the same day that Twitter suspended Trump’s personal account, @realdonaldtrump. The ban followed Trump by firing more than 57,000 tweets, often using the platform during his time in office to spread xenophobia, launch insults and amplify false allegations of electoral fraud, which generated warnings on Twitter in posts starting in May.
Twitter and other platforms have content moderation and civic integrity policies for a reason. Platforms cannot give free passes to any individual, regardless of being a public or private figure, free pass after free pass before finally enforcing their rules.
– Yosef Getachew (@ ygetachew2) January 9, 2021
@TeamTrump was later suspended on Friday after that account posted a series of tweets attributed to the president, since “using another account to try to escape the suspension is against our rules,” said Twitter.
Just before the suspension of that account, he “had directed his 2.3 million followers to his Parler account”, Reuters reported.
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The growing list of suspended accounts affiliated with Trump includes Facebook, with the company blocking the president from posting to his account for at least two weeks. “We believe that the risks of allowing the president to continue using our service during this period are simply too great,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation says companies have a justification for prohibitions, calling the actions “a simple exercise of [the platforms’] rights under the First Amendment and Section 230 to heal their websites. “
“However,” wrote EFF legal director Corynne McSherry on Thursday, “we are always concerned when platforms take on the role of censors, which is why we continue to call on them to apply a human rights framework to these decisions.” She called for platforms to be “more transparent and consistent in applying their rules – and we ask policymakers to find ways to foster competition so that users have a variety of editorial and policy options to choose from.”
The EFF call came at a time when questions arose about how the extremist crowd was able to cause the destruction it did, especially due to indications that the violence was going to unfold. Like ProPublica reported Thursday, “warnings about Wednesday’s attack on Capitol Hill were everywhere” on social media, including Parler.
Detailing these warnings, extreme right-wing extremism researcher Alex Newhouse wrote Friday in The conversation:
While the posts on Facebook and Twitter suggested that more than just protests were possible, nowhere was the violence that approached as obvious as in Parler. The site, which attracted millions of new conservative users last year, has positioned itself as a bastion for right-wing conspiracy theories and organizational efforts. From my research, hundreds of Parler users expressed their sincere belief, and even desire, that the demonstrations would trigger a physical battle, revolution or civil war.
We are ready to fight and we want blood, “declared a Parler post on December 28.” The president needs to do something if January 6 is the day, then we’ll be ready. “Another user declared:” January 6, either our saving grace or we will have another civil war that must end very quickly !! Anyway, Trump will be our POTUS !! Anything less is unacceptable !! “
Using tools that allow me to monitor social media data on a large scale, I found evidence that right-wing activists have been explicit and open with their intentions for the January 6 demonstrations since at least mid-December.
Parler’s intensified scrutiny joins growing calls for the removal of Trump, either through impeachment or the 25th Amendment, with demands from advocacy groups, as well as a growing list of lawmakers.
A group of House Democrats plans to present an impeachment article against Trump on Monday for “deliberately inciting violence against the United States government”.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would deliberate on whether the president would not resign first next week.