Breaking: Apple just pulled the Parler app.

Apple said Parler is allowing too many posts that encourage violence and crimes. This follows a similar move from Google yesterday.

Parler was one of the fastest-growing apps in the U.S., but now its future is in question.
For those asking: If you already have Parler on your iPhone, it's not going away. This will stop new people from downloading it.

It also stops Parler from updating its app, which means that the versions already on iPhones will soon be obsolete as Apple updates iOS.
As Amy Peikoff, Parler’s policy chief, said on Fox News last night: If Apple kicks us off the App Store, “we’re toast.”
Here’s what Apple sent to Parler today.
Something else to consider here.

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, which make calls about the content that appears on their own sites, Apple and Google are weighing in on how other companies operate.

That could have significant side effects.
First, it could make it tough for any of these "free speech" upstarts that aim to be Twitter alternatives.

If they want to reach a wide audience, they'll have to police their users -- which undercuts their main feature.

If Trump tries to start his own app, expect this fight.
That essentially strengthens the position of the incumbents, Facebook and Twitter, and gives their decisions more teeth.

If there is no big alternative social network where users can post largely with impunity, a Twitter ban hurts much more. (This is suddenly relevant!)
And then there is the knock-on effect for all the smaller apps that suddenly want to make sure that they're taking down dangerous content and hate speech so they don't lose access to Apple and Google's app stores.

@MikeIsaac said it well here: https://twitter.com/MikeIsaac/status/1347967435186475008?s=20
You can follow @jacknicas.
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