The social media app Parler has officially been removed from Apple’s App Store.
Parler, for those who do not know, is an app that prides itself in being for free speech. It is a social network a lot of politically conservative and ring-wing users have joined to get away from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter due to their censorship in the past.
Yesterday, Apple threatened Parler that it would be pulled from the App Store if it did not begin to censor certain posts. The company gave Parler 24 hours notice.
Now that 24 hours has past since Parler was given the warning and did not comply, it has given the social network the boot from the App Store.
Here is a statement Parler founder and CEO John Matze said about his app being removed from the App Store:
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. They claim it is due to violence on the platform. The community disagrees as we hit number 1 on their store today. The same day “Hang Mike Pence”, a disgusting violent suggestion, was trending nationally on Twitter. Displaying the horrible double standard Apple and their big tech pack apply to the community. Apple, a software monopoly, provides no alternatives to installing apps on your phone other then their store. We do not own our phones, Apple simply rents them to us. Apple, Google and the rest of the anti-competitive pack of big tech tyrants coordinate their moves and work together to stifle competition in the marketplace. More details about our next plans coming soon as we have many options.
— John Matze ?? John
Other app stores such as the Google Play store for Android devices have removed the app, with new rumors that Amazon employees have asked the company to remove the app from its app store too.
What do you think of Parler being removed from the App Store? Let us know on Twitter at @appleosophy.
UPDATE: Amazon has taken the app off of its app store and is taking it off Amazon Web Services (AWS). The ban will begin on Sunday night, December 9. If Parler does not find a new web hosting service, the social network will be forced to go offline.
Feature image courtesy of Black Christian News Network
