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.
“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.”
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.
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.”
