Google cut the Parler app from its Play Store listings over posts the company said incites more violence in the aftermath of the U.S. Capitol riot Friday, and on Saturday Apple followed suit. Screenshots from Parler, which launched in 2018 as an alternative to Twitter, show posts referring to firing squads and calls to bring weapons to President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.
The social media network is popular with supporters of President Donald Trump."We're a community town square, an open town square, with no censorship," Parler CEO John Matze told last summer. "If you can say it on the street of New York, you can say it on Parler."
Google said in a statement it warned Parler about its content moderation policy earlier this year, which requires social media apps to remove posts inciting violence, but there were still Parler posts inciting more violence after Wednesday's riot in the U.S. Capitol.