Apple and Amazon suspend Parler from web stores
Apple and Amazon have followed Google’s lead and suspended Parler from their respective app stores over concerns that the social media platform has not done enough to regulate content inciting violence.
The app, which styles itself as an “unbiased” platform, has proved popular with users who have been kicked off other platforms.
The suspensions come after US President Donald Trump was permanently removed from Twitter for using the platform to incite last week’s violence at the US Capitol.
Apple removed Parler after giving the site 24 hours to provide a content moderation plan, pointing to the fact users took to the site to coordinate last week’s riots.
In a statement, Apple said: “We have suspended Parler from the App Store until they resolve these issues.”
Amazon removed the platform from its Web Services unit for posing a “very real risk to public safety”, it said in an email seen by Reuters.
Unless it can find a new web hosting site by this evening, the move means that the whole Parler network will go offline.
In response to Google’s suspension on Friday, Parler chief executive John Matze said: “We won’t cave to politically motivated companies and those authoritarians who hate free speech!”
He added in a post on the site that the platform could be unavailable for up to a week as it is rebuilt “from scratch”.
Although Trump himself is not a member of the platform, Parler has several other high-profile contributors, including Texan Senator Ted Cruz.
Cruz, a one-time candidate to be the Republican nominee for president, has been fiercely criticised for his role in Wednesday’s events.
The Texan was central to attempts to challenge incoming President Joe Biden’s certification process, the target of the protests.