Apple warned that they were going to do it. And they gave Parler a chance to address their issues with moderation of the sort of content that led to the storming of the Capitol in midweek. And clearly Parler didn’t listen so as a result the Parler app has been punted from the App Store:
“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 provided to me via email. “Parler has not taken adequate measures to address the proliferation of these threats to people’s safety. We have suspended Parler from the App Store until they resolve these issues.”
So Apple joins Google in punting Parler. To be clear, these are suspensions which gives Parler the opportunity to come back if they address the issues that got them punted in the first place. Based on this statement from Parler CEO John Matze, I can’t see that happening:
“Apple will be banning Parler until we give up free speech, institute broad and invasive policies like Twitter and Facebook and we become a surveillance platform by pursuing guilt of those who use Parler before innocence,” he said. “They claim it is due to violence on the platform. The community disagrees as we hit number 1 on their store today.”
I did check throughout Saturday and the Parler app was #1 on the App Store before it was Thanos snapped out of existence. Clearly lots of people rushed to download it before it was banned. Now if people already have the Parler app on their phone, it will stay there. But it won’t get updated. And will likely break at some point because of an OS update. Now if you want to “side load” it or put it onto a phone outside the App Store or Play store, instructions for doing so on Android are floating around the Internet. There is zero chance of doing the same thing on iOS.
But let’s get down to brass tacks. Does the Apple/Google ban of Parler hurt Parler? I would say likely due to the fact that mobile apps outpace anything on desktop/laptop platforms. So their potential to grow with “Joe Average” users will be severely curtailed. That’s a huge problem seeing as according to Morningstar, they haven’t made a dime. At some point, that will be an issue if this ban lasts an extended amount of time. Then I am guessing that Matze is going reconsider his stance. But I guess we will have to see what happens next.