Apple denied Parler’s entry into the company’s App Store after the controversial social media app that drew conservatives was removed from the platform in January after the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill, according to documents cited by Bloomberg.
“After reviewing the new information, we do not believe that these changes are sufficient to comply with the App Store Review guidelines,” Apple wrote to Parler’s policy director on February 25, according to Bloomberg. “There is no place for hateful, racist and discriminatory content on the App Store.”
Apple suspended Parler from its platform in January because of the application’s lack of moderation and threats of violence. The application was also removed from Amazon’s web hosting services in the same month.
Apple and Amazon gave Parler the opportunity to change their content moderation policy. But on February 15, Parler relaunched, this time on his own platform, which allowed him to bypass moderation regulations.
With the launch, the app introduced new community guidelines, but they were inappropriate for App Store regulations – mainly because of derogatory “easily identifiable” terms and symbols on the platform.
“In fact, simple searches reveal highly questionable content, including easily identified offensive uses of derogatory terms related to race, religion and sexual orientation, as well as Nazi symbols,” Apple wrote to Parler in a letter, according to Bloomberg. “For these reasons, your application cannot be returned to the App Store for distribution until it complies with the guidelines.”
On Wednesday, Parler allegedly hacked three of his remaining iOS developers, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. Overall, the company removed seven workers, most of whom were hired, while other staff worked at Parler TV and quality control.
Parler’s community guidelines were written by policy director Amy Peikoff, Bloomberg said, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Parler grew in popularity among conservative users after the 2020 presidential election and the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill, marking himself as a pro-freedom of speech platform, following Twitter’s moves to block certain users, including former President Trump
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Apple and Parler did not immediately respond to requests for comment.