AAPL Apple Inc

By Jeff Horwitz and Tim Higgins 

Apple Inc. has threatened to ban Parler, a free-speech focused social-media network favored by conservatives, for failing to moderate incitements to violence and illegal activity, according to a notice provided to The Wall Street Journal by John Matze, Parler's chief executive.

"We have received numerous complaints regarding objectionable content in your Parler service, accusations that the Parler App was used to plan, coordinate and facilitate the illegal activities in Washington DC on January 6," the notice begins. The tech giant said in order for Parler to remain available in the App Store, it had to provide detailed information on its content-moderation plans and "what you will do to improve moderation and content filtering your service for this kind of objectionable content going forward."

Apple set a deadline of 24 hours for Parler's compliance.

Launched in 2018, Parler has billed itself as a free-speech friendly and content-recommendation free alternative to larger social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. It has exploded in popularity in the run-up to and after the 2020 U.S. presidential election

While Parler bans spam, threats of violence and other illegal activity, its rules don't prohibit hate speech and false information.

Mr. Matze said Parler believes its existing rules against incitements to violence meet Apple's standards and that Parler is confident that "we can retain our values and make Apple happy quickly."

Nonetheless, Mr. Matze said, he was nervous "because the text in their messaging was fairly confrontational."

In recent years, Apple has shown a willingness in the U.S. to pull content from far-right creators deemed controversial, pulling Infowars podcasts in 2018 and Gab AI Inc., a social media app, in 2017. In pulling five Infowars podcasts, Apple said at the time, they didn't comply with guidelines designed to create a safe environment for users.

Write to Jeff Horwitz at Jeff.Horwitz@wsj.com and Tim Higgins at Tim.Higgins@WSJ.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 08, 2021 19:10 ET (00:10 GMT)

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