Apple, Amazon remove Parler after use in US Capitol riots

Bloomberg

Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. are removing Parler from their services, part of a growing backlash after the social media network was among those used to organise last week’s riots at the Capitol.
Apple dropped Parler from its App Store, while Amazon’s cloud unit decided to stop hosting the social media company. They joined Alphabet Inc.’s Google, which removed the app from its Google Play store, saying that it created an “ongoing and urgent public safety threat.”
Parler, which is popular with extremist groups seeking an alternative to more mainstream social media sites, has come under fire since the storming of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. The move by the tech companies will leave Parler ending the weekend without easy access to virtually all of the world’s smartphone users, and scrambling to find a new company to host its services.
Apple’s decision came a day after the Cupertino, California-based technology giant threatened to remove the app, telling Parler developers they had 24 hours to provide Apple with a plan for moderating and filtering the service.
A letter provided by Apple to Parler indicates that the social media company did offer to make changes in order to
remain on the App Store.
Parler told Apple that it “has been taking this content very seriously for weeks,” that it would implement a moderation plan “for the time being” and that it would implement a temporary task force, according to the letter.
Apple rejected those efforts as a solution in its explanation for removing the app. “We have continued to find direct threats of violence and calls to incite lawless action,” Apple wrote to Parler, adding that the measures were “inadequate to address the proliferation of dangerous and objectionable content on your app.”