Parler reappears in Apple App Store blocking hate messages in iOS app

The Parler app reappeared in the Apple App Store on Monday, after being banned from the platform for more than four months. Parler now blocks hate speech messages in the iOS app, but will show them in the Android app and web apps.

Parler has created a moderation system for the iOS app that works with artificial intelligence, the company says to The Washington Post, among others. This AI labels messages if they are recognized as ‘hate speech’. In the iOS app these messages are not displayed, in the other Parler versions these messages are visible by clicking away a notification. Parler understands hate speech as messages with racist remarks.

The app sees this blocking of hate speech messages as undesirable and continues to ask Apple if they can use a warning label to show the messages, as it does in the other versions. Apple is still sticking to the block as a requirement to appear in the App Store.

Parler is a social medium with little to no moderation. Apple, Amazon and Google severed ties with the app in January after the storming of the US Capitol. According to Apple, there were many messages in the app that violated Apple’s App Store guidelines. Only if Parler got an improved moderation plan would the app appear in the App Store again. A month ago, it turned out that Apple had approved Parler for the app store again. As far as known, Google has not yet approved the app.