Parler reappears in Apple App Store and blocks hate messages in iOS app

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

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

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

Parler is a social medium where there is little to no moderation. Apple, Amazon and Google broke 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 would get an improved moderation plan, the app should be allowed to appear in the App Store again. A month ago it turned out that Apple had approved Parler again for the app store. As far as we know, Google has not yet approved the app.