Social media platform Parler is accusing Apple of moving the goal posts and making it more challenging for the site to get back on the tech giant’s app store after its initial ban.
Apple is now requiring Parler to remove not just violence-inducing content but also all hate speech, according to Parler, making it more difficult and confusing for the platform to gain entry into the popular app store once again.
Parler, which is popular with conservatives, was first kicked off the app store in January for inciting violence related to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. In March, the platform was denied reentry into Apple’s app store because Apple ruled Parler’s new community guidelines were still insufficient to comply with the app store rules.
“So it was interesting because prior to the March appeal we put in, the only discussion we had with Apple was about violent or inciting content,” Amy Peikoff, Parler’s chief policy officer, told the Washington Examiner in an interview.
“And then, after their recent rejection, Apple then started talking about so-called hate speech on Parler,” Peikoff said.
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Parler has hired a third-party vendor to remove violence-inducing content using algorithmic flagging and human review and already has a “troll feature” that will filter out objectionable or hate speech if users choose. Despite these two significant steps, Parler remains banned from the app store.
Peikoff said Parler was in discussions with Apple regarding the platform’s approach to objectionable content and is “optimistic” about meeting Apple’s expectations, particularly thanks to its existing hate speech-blocking “troll feature,” which it has now highlighted to the tech giant.
However, Peikoff also said she was concerned about how “subjective” Apple’s definition of objectionable or hate speech is. Apple’s content moderation standards for all applications on its apps store include the phrase invoked by a Supreme Court justice in a high-profile obscenity case — “I’ll know it when I see it” — Peikoff said.
She said Apple applies a “double standard” in content moderation. Facebook and Twitter, for instance, have repeatedly gotten away with hate speech on their platforms without punishment, Peikoff said.
Peikoff added that the new third-party vendor that Parler has hired to better moderate violence-inducing content has “a lot of experience with hate speech,” which it will be helping the platform with as well.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Monday that he hopes social media platform Parler can adjust its content moderation standards so that the tech giant can reverse its ban and allow users to download the Parler app on Apple devices again.
Cook added that Parler had successfully moderated user content for long periods in the past but was not able to in the period before and after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
Peikoff said despite Apple’s and Cook’s unfair characterization of Parler’s content moderation standards, its role in the Capitol attack, and its alleged partisan leanings, she said there was nevertheless much agreement between the two companies.
“I think that we have a lot of common ground, particularly with respect to the rejection of the engagement-enhancing algorithms and in regards to user privacy,” said Peikoff.
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Parler was launched to counter other mainstream social media apps and prided itself on its embrace of free speech, as well as a “respect for privacy and personal data,” according to its website.
