In a Huge Blow to Freedom of Speech Apple Joins Google in Suspending Parler From Their Respective App Stores

By Steve Straub
Published January 9, 2021 at 5:31pmShare Tweet Share Email Print

In a blow to free speech Apple has now joined Google in banning Parler from their respective app stores.

Over the past several months, Parler has become one of the fastest-growing apps in the United States. Millions of President Trump’s supporters have flocked to it as Facebook and Twitter increasingly cracked down on posts that spread misinformation and incited violence, including muzzling Mr. Trump by removing his accounts this past week. By Saturday morning, Apple listed Parler as the No. 1 free app for its iPhones.

But hours later, Apple said it had removed Parler from its App Store. Google had made a similar move a day earlier. The companies both said that Parler had not sufficiently policed the conversation on its app, allowing too many posts that encouraged violence and crime.

“We have always supported diverse points of view being represented on the App Store, but there is no place on our platform for threats of violence and illegal activity,” Apple said in a statement late Saturday. “Parler has not taken adequate measures to address the proliferation of these threats to people’s safety.”

The dual removals were a major blow to Parler, sharply limiting its ability to find new users and throwing its future into question, just as it appeared poised to capitalize on growing anger at Silicon Valley in conservative circles. With Mr. Trump now banned on Twitter and Facebook, Parler had been a logical choice to become his next megaphone.

“This is very huge,” Amy Peikoff, Parler’s policy chief, told Fox News on Friday, when Apple first threatened to remove the app. Without access to the App Store, she said, “we’re toast.”

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Free speech shall not be allowed anywhere.