The companies removed the “free speech” social network from their app stores, limiting its reach just as many conservatives are seeking alternatives to Facebook and Twitter.
Parler, a social network that pitches itself as a “free speech” alternative to Twitter and Facebook, is suffering from whiplash. 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.” John Matze, Parler’s chief executive, said in a text message early Saturday that Twitter had recently promoted the phrase “Hang Mike Pence” as a trending topic. (The majority of the discussion on Twitter was about rioters chanting the phrase about the vice president on Wednesday.) “I have seen no evidence Apple is going after them,” Mr. Matze said. “This would appear to be an unfair double standard as every other social media site has the same issues, arguably on a worse scale.” He added, “But we are taking this very seriously.” As to Google’s action, Mr. Matze said in a statement that Parler had first heard of it “in the press.
