Nevertheless, Parler plans to keep fighting for reinstatement in the App Store
Apple won’t let the conservative social-media app Parler back into the App Store as Parler hasn’t cleaned up its act enough, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg News and The Input.
After having reviewed the new information, we do not believe these changes are sufficient to comply with App Store Review Guidelines 1.1 Objectionable Content and 1.2 User Generated Content, an email sent by Apple on Feb. 25 to Parler Chief Policy Officer Amy Peikoff and seen by both outlets stated.
The email was in response to an application for reinstatement in the App Store. Apple had earlier told Parler that it might reinstate the app if it changed its moderation policies to eliminate hateful content.
It is clear from your stated moderation policies and from review of your app, that your moderation practices are insufficient to comply with the App Store Review Guidelines, the email added.
For these reasons, your app cannot be returned to the App Store for distribution until it complies with the guidelines, the email reportedly said.
The Input posted the images that Apple was said to have attached to the email as supporting evidence. They depict screenshots, taken on an iPhone running the Parler app, of search results for several derogatory terms.
Bloomberg News reported that yesterday, Parler laid off its three remaining iOS developers.
Nevertheless, Parler plans to keep fighting for reinstatement in the App Store.
Parler expects and hopes to keep working with Apple to return to the App Store, Peikoff said in a statement given to The Verge and the New York Post.
Peikoff said, 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.
Parler was removed from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store after supporters of former President Trump stormed the Capitol. On Jan. 10, Amazon shut down the leased servers running the Parler apps and website.
However, activist hackers managed to archive nearly all of the publicly available posts made by Parler users before the site was taken offline.
The Parler site has been relaunched on a different hosting service, and the website has instructions on how to sideload the Android app.