WASHINGTON (US) – Citing posts that incite violence, Alphabet Inc’s Google suspended the Parler social networking service from its app store on Friday. It also sought ‘robust’ content moderation from the app which is used by many supporters of US President Donald Trump.
On Friday, Apple Inc gave the service 24 hours to come out with a detailed moderation plan and cited participants using the service to control the siege of the Capitol building on Wednesday.
With the two Silicon Valley firms taking action, Parler, which is a shelter for those expelled from Twitter, is likely to become unavailable for new downloads on the world’s main mobile phone app stores within a day. It would still be available in mobile browsers.
Right-supporting social media users have thronged Parler, Telegram and hands-off social site Gab because of more aggressive policing of political comments on mainstream platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
Google’s software powers Android phones and it cited its policy against applications promoting violence and pointed to examples from Parler, including a post appearing on Friday that began “How do we take back our country? About 20 or so coordinated hits” and another promoting a “Million Militia March” on Washington.
In a post on Friday Parler Chief Executive John Matze said that Apple was applying standards to Parler which it failed to apply to itself.
In a statement, Google said that “for us to distribute an app through Google Play, we do require that apps implement robust moderation for egregious content. In light of this ongoing and urgent public safety threat, we are suspending the app’s listings from the Play Store until it addresses these issues.”
“Content that threatens the well-being of others or is intended to incite violence or other lawless acts has never been acceptable on the App Store,” Apple said in the letter.
Apple has given 24 hours to “remove all objectionable content from your app … as well as any content referring to harm to people or attacks on government facilities now or at any future date.” It has also sought a written plan “to moderate and filter this content” from the application.