Apple is going to restore Parler, the app at Center of Online-Speech Debate

The letter from Apple was posted on Twitter TWTR -3.65%

by Mr. Buck, and it was confirmed by Mr. Lee’s office. Apple declined to comment.

In the letter, Apple backed its original decision to remove Parler from the app store, citing messages belittling races and religions, promoting Nazi ideology and calling for violence. Since January, Apple has had “substantial talks” with Parler, and the app maker has proposed updates to its platform and its content moderation policies, Apple said.

“The App Review Team has informed Parler from April 14, 2021 that the proposed updated app will be approved for relocation to the App Store,” the letter said. The letter came in response to a question Mr Lee and Buck sent to Apple last month.

Mr Buck said on Twitter that the decision was “a huge victory for freedom of speech.”

Launched in 2018, Parler LLC found itself in the midst of a debate over internet businesses and free speech as it grew in popularity among supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

Parler is similar in size to the platform of Twitter Inc. The rise coincided with Twitter’s more aggressive attempts to flag or remove content that Twitter deemed objectionable or misleading. According to Mark Meckler, the interim director, Parler said in February that it had more than 20 million users.

Parler envisioned himself as a Twitter competitor who would moderate content with a hands-off approach. That policy made the platform an attractive online meeting place for the president’s supporters, who became saddened by Twitter’s approach to content moderation when Mr. Trump contested the results of the 2020 election and Twitter eventually shut down his account.

Trump does not have a Parler account, but conservative commentators such as Sean Hannity and Mark Levin have an active presence on the platform. Lawmakers who have given Mr. Trump strong support, including Rep. Devin Nunes from California and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia also has active accounts, as does Mr. Buck.

Following the Mafia’s attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, Apple and other major tech companies quickly moved on to cut ties with Parler, giving some people involved in the attack a forum to discuss their plans. Amazon.com Inc.

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has suspended Parler from its web hosting services. Alphabet Inc.,

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like Apple has also removed Parler from the app store.

In response to criticism that it served as a staging area for the Capitol attack, Parler has said it referred dozens of examples of violent content to the FBI in the weeks before the crowd gathered in Washington, DC.

Apple had previously denied Parler’s previous attempt to seek recovery.

Parler filed a lawsuit against Amazon for cutting off web hosting services, saying this was done for anti-competitive reasons. Parler gained limited functionality in February after securing Internet services hosted by SkySilk Inc., which operates from a data center in the Los Angeles area. Users could access the service through a web browser or if they had previously installed the app on their mobile devices.

It remains from the Google Play Store and a Parler spokesperson said earlier that it was not actively trying to restore the app in the store as it can be accessed in other ways. Parler provides instructions on its website for users to install the app on Android devices without having to visit the official app store.

Write to Matt Grossman at [email protected]