In 2018, Parler launched as a social media platform claiming to provide a platform for people to “speak freely and express yourself openly without fear of being de-platformed for your views.” Since then, Parler has attracted mostly conservative users after public outcry from conservative leaders and activists who claim that Facebook and other big tech companies have been censoring conservative voices with their misinformation protections.
As it turns out, Parler’s stance towards free speech essentially declares that they must not take measures to slow down the spread of misinformation and hate on their site, creating a cesspool of unsubstantiated claims, usually regarding election fraud.
Parler also became conservative’s preferred place to organize and recruit for pro-Trump events such as the Capitol siege that happened earlier this month. Apple found that the site included several “direct threats of violence and calls to incite lawless action.” Apple then went on to state that the processes put in place by Parler to moderate the progression of dangerous and illegal content were all but “insufficient.”
Parler has since been kicked off the Apple App Store, as well as the Google Play Store and Amazon Web Services, a cloud hosting service owned by Amazon. In other words, since it has now been kicked off Amazon’s services, the app no longer has servers to run on, essentially kicking it completely off of the public internet. Despite this, Parler’s CEO John Matze states that he is an “optimist” and believes that “it may take days, it may take weeks, but Parler will return and when we do we will be stronger.”
