Apple refused to re-enter Parler in the company’s App Store, after the controversial social app with conservative attraction was removed from the platform in January, after the riot in the January 6 Chapter, according to documents quoted 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 political director on February 25, according to Bloomberg. “There is no room for hateful, racist and discriminatory content in the App Store.”
Apple suspended Parler from its platform in January due to a lack of application moderation and threats of violence. The application was also removed from Amazon’s web hosting services in the same month.
Apple and Amazon have given Parler the opportunity to change its content moderation policy. But on February 15, Parler relaunched, this time on its own platform, which allowed it to bypass moderation regulations.
With the launch, the app introduced new community guidelines, but they weren’t appropriate for App Store regulations – due to “easy to identify” terms and symbols and derogatory symbols on the platform.
“In fact, simple searches reveal extremely unacceptable content, including easily identifiable offensive uses of derogatory terms about race, religion, and sexual orientation, as well as Nazi symbols,” Apple wrote to Parler in a letter, according to Bloomberg. “For these reasons, your app cannot be returned to the App Store for distribution until you follow the instructions.”
On Wednesday, Parler reportedly cut three of its remaining iOS developers, Bloomberg reported, citing someone familiar with the issue. Overall, the company eliminated seven workers, most of whom were contractors, while other staff worked at Parler TV and quality assurance.
The Parler community guidelines were written by political leader Amy Peikoff, Bloomberg reported citing two people familiar with the matter.
Parler has grown in popularity among conservative users after the 2020 presidential election and the January 6 Chapter riot, marking itself as a pro-free speech platform, following Twitter moves to block certain users, including former users. President Trump
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Apple and Parler did not immediately respond to requests for comment.