Parler Returns to Apple’s App Store After Months-Long Ban

Parler Returns to Apple’s App Store After Months-Long Ban
The Parler social media website is displayed on a cell phone in New York City on March 5, 2021. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)
Tom Ozimek
5/17/2021
Updated:
5/17/2021

Social media platform Parler has announced that its app has returned to Apple’s App Store following months of “productive dialogue” between the companies.

“Millions of Parler and Apple customers may once again exercise their right to freely exchange ideas and opinions on social media, without viewpoint discrimination,” Parler said in a May 17 statement.

“The dialogue was complemented by a backdrop of important revelations about Parler’s cooperation with law enforcement in the weeks leading up to January 6, as well as the prevalence of violent and inciting content on competing social media networks during that period,” Parler said, adding that these “revelations” show that Parler was “unjustly scapegoated and deplatformed shortly after January 6,” the day of the U.S. Capitol breach.

Version 2.39 of Parler’s iOS app, which features “enhanced threat and incitement reporting tools,” was available for download on Apple’s App Store.

“Adhering to Apple’s requirements, Parler’s iOS app excludes some content that Parler otherwise allows,” the company said. “However, that content is still visible, at the user’s discretion, on the web-based and Android versions of the platform.”

The website of the social media platform Parler is displayed in Berlin, on Jan. 10, 2021.(Christophe Gateau/dpa via AP)
The website of the social media platform Parler is displayed in Berlin, on Jan. 10, 2021.(Christophe Gateau/dpa via AP)

Parler added that it plans to continue its discussions with Apple about “the optimal way to handle this content.”

Apple and Google removed Parler from its app stores, while Amazon removed the platform from its web hosting service following the Jan. 6 Capitol breach. All three companies took issue with the company’s alleged lax approach to removing violent content posted by its users and “repeated violations” of their terms of service related to such violent content.

Parler denied the allegations and argued that the Big Tech companies had colluded against it while not taking any action against competitors such as Twitter and Facebook, which had similar content on their platforms regarding the Capitol breach.

In late March, Parler revealed that it had referred “violent content and incitement” from its platform to the FBI over 50 times before Jan. 6. It also warned the bureau about “specific threats of violence being planned” about the Jan. 6 incident.
Parler has sued Amazon for breach of contract, defamation, and anticompetitive behavior.
Google, in an April 20 statement to The Associated Press, said that “Parler is welcome back in the Play store once it submits an app that complies with our policies,” although that hasn’t yet happened.

Parler’s interim CEO Mark Meckler said in a statement on May 17 that “the entire Parler team has worked hard to address Apple’s concerns without compromising our core mission,” calling the reinstatement “a win-win for Parler, its users, and free speech.”

Janita Kan contributed to this report.
Tom Ozimek is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times. He has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education.
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