Apple has reportedly blocked Parler from returning to its App Store, which would have allowed new users to download the microblogging app on iPhones — and now the social media platform is fighting back.
In a Feb. 25 decision, Apple told Parler that ''after having reviewed the new information, we do not believe these changes are sufficient to comply with App Store Review guidelines,'' Bloomberg reported. ''There is no place for hateful, racist, discriminatory content on the App Store.''
Apple had joined Google in booting Parler from its App Store in January after the Capitol Hill siege, effectively excluding the app from all Apple smartphones. Amazon made a similar move, removing Parler from its web hosting services, knocking Parler offline until it was able to find another host.
Parler returned to live online service last month.
But Apple has turned down Parler's request to return to the App Store, Bloomberg reported, citing the letter the news agency said it had obtained.
''As you know, developers are required to implement robust moderation capabilities to proactively identify, prevent and filter this objectionable content to protect the health and safety of users,'' continued Apple in its letter to Parler, which was obtained by Bloomberg.
The tech giant alleged content including ''easily identified offensive uses of derogatory terms regarding race, religion and sexual orientation, as well as Nazi symbols'' could still be found on Parler.
''For these reasons your app cannot be returned to the App Store for distribution until it complies with the guidelines,'' Apple said.
Now Parler has responded with its own statement to Breitbart — insisting it'd been working toward returning to the App Store ''in reliance on [Apple CEO] Tim Cook's statements that Apple's problem was not with our mission, but only with the perceived lack of enforcement of our guidelines.''
''Parler has always opposed and worked to remove violent and inciting rhetoric from our platform, because it inhibits productive, civil discourse,'' Parler's statement to Breitbart said, adding:
''Accordingly, and even though we knew that problems with violent and inciting content were not unique to Parler in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6 — a fact that independent reviews of court records have now shown — we worked tirelessly to adopt enhanced protocols for identifying and removing this type of content.''
According to Breitbart, the social media platform insists it's shown Apple ''how we've incorporated a combination of algorithmic filters and human review to detect and remove content that threatens or incites violence.''
''We've also explained our new feature which empowers individual users with the option to filter out personal attacks based on immutable and irrelevant characteristics such as race, sex, sexual orientation, or religion,'' Parler said, Breitbart reported.
''We're optimistic that Apple will continue to differentiate itself from other 'Big Tech' companies by supporting its customers' choice to 'think different' — to exercise their constitutionally protected freedoms of thought, speech, and association — while using Apple products,'' the statement said, Breitbart reported.
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