Google will remove the Parler app from the Google Play Store

Google has removed Parler, a social media app popular with Trump supporters, from the Google Play Store, making it much more difficult for Android users to download and open the app.

Google said in a statement that it requires social media apps to have a content moderation policy that removes messages inciting violence, and that posts on Parler encouraged further violence following the uprising in the Capitol earlier this week.

The app’s removal is because violence in the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters on Wednesday that killed five has made renewed calls to social media and technology companies to more accurately moderate their platforms, especially when it comes to calls to instigate violence.

Twitter permanently banned President Donald Trump’s personal account Friday because it felt Trump’s most recent tweets incited violence, while Facebook prevented Trump from posting through the inauguration later this month.

Screenshots of the Parler app seen by CNBC show users posting references to firing squads, as well as calls to bring weapons to the presidential inauguration later this month. In its statement, Google said it had warned the app about its content moderation policies earlier this year.

Launched in 2018, Parler emerged as a pro-Trump alternative to Twitter earlier this year with less content moderation. “We are a community square, an open town square, without censorship,” said John Matze, Parler’s CEO in June. “If you can say it on the street in New York, you can say it on Parler.”

The Google Play Store isn’t the only way to install apps on Android phones. Users have a choice between alternative app stores or a process called side-loading, which installs software manually without going through an app store.

The Parler app is not being removed from users’ phones and can still be accessed on the web, although the website had trouble loading on Friday.

Parler did not immediately return a request for comment about app store removals on Friday. Matze, Parler’s CEO, posted on his social network snippets of a message from Apple on Friday that suggested that Apple planned to remove the app from the app store for iPhones soon. An Apple representative didn’t immediately comment.

Here’s the full statement from Google:

“To protect users’ safety on Google Play, our long-standing policy requires that apps displaying user-generated content have moderation policies and enforcement that remove blatant content, such as messages that incite violence. All developers agree to these terms and conditions and we have reminded Parler of them. Clear policies in recent months. We are aware that messages have continued to be posted in the Parler app to incite continued violence in the US We recognize that there may be reasonable discussions about content policy and that it can be difficult for apps to discard all violent content, but in order to distribute an app through Google Play, we do require apps to implement robust moderation for blatant content In light of this ongoing and urgent threat to public safety, we will suspend the app’s listings from the Play Store until it fixes these issues. “