Apple to let Parler back on App Store ahead of anti-trust hearing

Apple – which faces an anti-trust hearing on Capitol Hill this week – said on Monday that it will reinstate Parler to the App Store after a nearly four-month absence.

Apple Inc. will let the social-media app Parler back on the App Store after an almost four-month absence, the iPhone maker told U.S. government officials ahead of a congressional antitrust hearing later this week. The Cupertino, California-based technology giant made the disclosure in a letter to Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, and Representative Ken Buck, a Republican from Colorado. The social media app was removed from the App Store in January after it was one of the online networks used to incite violence at the Capitol in Washington. At the time, Apple said it pulled the app for violating content guidelines and said it would consider reinstating the service if Parler made changes to better moderate content. Apple told the government officials in the letter that it found posts on Parler that “encouraged violence, denigrated various ethnic groups, races and religions, glorified Nazism, and called for violence.” Since the initial rejection, as well as rejections of other updates, Apple has “engaged in substantial conversations with Parler in an effort to bring the Parler app into compliance with the Guidelines and reinstate it in the App Store,” the company said in the letter.