Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has laid a condition for which conservative-friendly social media app Parler could return to its App Store.
Cook said that the app developers would need to change its moderation structure on the platform for users.
Parler was taken off the App Store after the US Capitol was attacked by pro-Trump supporters on January 6 after users of the platform had hinted at creating such disruption on the app.
Cook, in an interview with Fox News, said that posts on the platform had fomented the violence that was observed at the Capitol.
He added that such posts did not constitute ‘free speech’, as there was no ‘intersection’ between free speech and ‘incitement to violence.
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“We looked at the incitement to violence that was on there, and we don’t consider that free speech and incitement to violence has an intersection,” he said.
He continued, “we’ve only suspended them. So, if they get their moderation together, they would be back on.
“I felt like I was in some sort of alternate reality,” Cook said.
“This could not be happening.”
Other platforms that severed ties with Parler are Amazon and Google.
Amazon was sued by Parler for blocking access to internet servers.
Cook said “We have an app store that has about two million apps in it.
“We obviously don’t control what’s on the internet. But we’ve never viewed that our platform should be a simple replication of the internet.
“We have rules and regulations and we just ask that people abide by those.”
