Apple allows Parler back in the App Store

Social medium Parler is allowed again in the App Store. Apple announced this in a letter to the US Congress. The company reports that Parler has proposed plans to improve the moderation of posts on the platform.

Apple directed the letter to Congressman Ken Buck and Senator Mike Lee, CNN noted. The company writes in the letter that the updates proposed by Parler are sufficient to meet its App Store guidelines. The company already announced this decision to the social medium last week. Apple says it expects the updated app to be available as soon as Parler releases it.

Parler was banned from the App Store on January 9, following the storming of the US Capitol. Apple said it found “a large number of posts that violated App Store guidelines.” Among other things, the company reported that content on Parler was not moderated enough. Before the app was removed, Apple demanded on January 8 that Parler remove “hateful and violent content” from the platform within 24 hours and that the platform come up with a plan for improving content moderation.

Parler has been around since 2018 and is an alternative to social media such as Facebook and Twitter. According to the creators of the service, users of those platforms cannot always express their opinions without getting banned. The app experienced a resurgence in popularity at the beginning of this year. This coincided with the storming of the US Capitol on Wednesday, January 6.

Apple wasn’t the only company to cut ties with Parler in January. The app was also removed from the Google Play Store in January. Amazon stopped hosting the social network a few days later, leaving the platform unreachable for some time. Parler came back online in February through a different web host, although the app was not yet available in the various app stores at the time. The app is still not available in the Google Play Store.