Apple tells GOP lawmakers Parler is approved to come back to its app store



Apple will allow Parler, the pro-free speech alternative social media app favored by conservatives and Trump supporters, back on to its iOS app store, the tech giant told Republican lawmakers Monday.

Parler was kicked off the iOS Store in the days following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol after Apple accused the company of failing to moderate violent content on its platform. Until now, Parler users have been unable to download the app on iOS devices. Apple had said Parler would not be allowed back in its store until the company made changes to comply with the App Store Review guidelines.

"There is no place for hateful, racist, discriminatory content on the App Store," Apple reportedly told Parler last month.

But in a letter responding to an inquiry from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) about Apple's actions toward Parler, Apple Senior Director of Government Affairs for the Americas Timothy Powderly said his company has been "engaged in substantial conversation" with Parler about bringing the app into compliance with its guidelines.

"As a result of those conversations, Parler has proposed updates to its app and the app's content moderation practices, and the App Review Team has informed Parler as of April 14, 2021 that its proposed update app will be approved for reinstatement to the App Store," Powderly wrote.

He added that Apple expects the updated Parler app to become available as soon as Parler releases it.

Rep. Buck tweeted that the reinstatement of Parler's app is a "huge win for free speech."

He also said it's "time for Google and Amazon to follow Apple's lead. Stop the censorship."

Around the same time Parler was kicked off the Apple App Store in January, Google dropped the app from its store and Amazon Web Services booted Parler from its web hosting services, effectively taking the website off the internet and forcing Parler to search for a new host.

Politico reported that Google sent a letter to Congress on Friday telling lawmakers that Parler is still not in compliance with its content moderation rules.

"Parler's app has not yet complied with those policies, and that is why it remains suspended," said Mark Isakowitz, Google vice president of government affairs and public policy.

A spokesman for Google told Politico that Parler's app will be welcomed back on the Google Play store "once it submits an app that complies with our policies."

There is no word on whether Amazon will allow Parler to return to its web services. In March, Parler filed a lawsuit against Amazon in the federal court for the Western District of Washington alleging defamation and breach of contract by Amazon.

A representative for Amazon said last March that Parler's lawsuit was meritless and that it was clearly demonstrable that content on Parler "encouraged or incited violence against others" in violation of Amazon's terms of service.

Google deletes 100,000 negative reviews of Robinhood on app store



On Thursday, after the stock trading app Robinhood froze trades of GameStop and other "volatile" stocks, outraged customers flooded app stores to give furious one-star reviews proclaiming their displeasure. In response, Google intervened to delete the negative reviews on the Google Play Store and protect the Robinhood app's reputation.

Google confirmed that it acted to delete the negative reviews to The Verge, claiming that the dissatisfied Robinhood customers leaving negative reviews violated Google's policies by intentionally trying to drive down the app's rating. At one point Thursday, the Robinhood app had a one-star rating with 274,982 reviews. By the time The Verge published its report, approximately 100,000 reviews had been deleted and the app was back up to a four-star rating.

From The Verge:

It's not outside Google's purview to delete these posts. Google's policies explicitly prohibit reviews intended to manipulate an app's rating, and the company says it has a system that "combines human intelligence with machine learning to detect and enforce policy violations in ratings and reviews." Google says it specifically took action on reviews that it felt confident violated those policies, the company tells The Verge. Google says companies do not have the ability to delete reviews themselves.

Angry Robinhood customers began leaving negative reviews of Robinhood's app after the company acted to halt trades of certain "volatile" stocks, including GameStop, popularized on the Reddit discussion board WallStreetBets. Users who already owned these stocks were permitted to close their positions (sell their stock) but were prohibited from buying more stock. In a statement released Thursday, Robinhood said it had made the decision to freeze the trades "in light of recent volatility."

Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev further explained Thursday that the trades were frozen "to protect the firm and protect our customers," denying accusations made on the internet that Robinhood was acting on the behest of Wall Street hedge funds. He said that the restrictions were imposed to comply with capital requirements mandated by the SEC for stock brokers.

"We absolutely did not do this at the direction of any market maker or hedge fund ... the reason we did it is because Robinhood as a brokerage firm, we have lots of financial requirements," Tenev said on CNBC.

"We have SEC net capital requirements and clearing house deposits. So that's money that we have to deposit at various clearing houses. Some of these requirements fluctuate quite a bit based on volatility in the market and they can be substantial in the current environment where there's a lot of volatility and a lot of concentrated activity in these names that have been going viral on social media," he explained.

"We just haven't see this level of concentrated interest market wide in a small number of names before," Tenev said. "We do believe that you should be able to buy and sell the stocks that you want to."

After the closing bell Thursday, Robinhood announced that it would resume limited trading of the restricted stocks.

"We have seen unprecedented interest due to the fact that finance has been culturally relevant in a way that hasn't been before," Tenev said. "Of course, Robinhood stands for everyday investors. From the very beginning, we have stood for investors opening up access. It pains us to have had to impose these restrictions and we're going to do what we can to enable trading in these stocks as soon as we can."