Parler Available Again on Google Play Store, Truth Social Continues to Be Blocked

Google has made social media platform Parler available for download through its Play Store, more than a year and half after it had removed the app.

Launched in 2018, Parler quickly became a sought-after social media platform for conservatives as it promised to protect free speech rights and not engage in unwanted censorship. However, following the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, major app stores removed Parler from their offerings, accusing the company of failing to moderate content that they claimed may have played a role in the incident.

Since then, Parler has been trying to get back on Google’s app store. And now after around 18 months, Google has made the app available for download through its Play Store starting Friday.

Parler is said to have taken measures to strengthen content moderation, which includes actively monitoring for speech deemed violent and allowing users to report and block other users.

In a statement to Axios, a Google spokesperson said that all apps available via Google Play that feature User Generated Content (UGC) have to implement “robust moderation practices” and take action against UGC “where appropriate.”

Parler has welcomed the decision. “While away from Google Play, we have worked diligently to build a more feature-rich and dynamic user experience,” Parler Chief Technology Officer Sam Lipoff said in a statement.

“Now is a perfect time to join Parler and rediscover the non-partisan platform where we enable people to speak freely!”

While Parler returns, former President Donald Trump’s social media network Truth Social is still awaiting approval to make its app available on the store.

Google has so far refused to approve the Truth Social App. In an Aug. 30 statement, the tech company said that Truth Social has committed “several violations” of standards policies in their app submission and suggested that the app’s moderation of UGC was lacking.

In an Aug. 30 statement, TMTG, which owns Truth Social, pointed out that some of their competitors’ apps are allowed on the Play Store despite such apps “rampantly violating” Google’s prohibition on sexual content and other policies.

Plus, Google’s Developer Policy Center makes it clear that the company will not allow apps that “facilitate the sale” of marijuana or marijuana products irrespective of legality. Yet a review of apps by the Daily Caller News Foundation found multiple apps selling marijuana are accessible on the Play Store.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) criticized the tech giant for not approving Truth Social. “Google is once again targeting and silencing conservative voices, this time by banning President Trump’s Truth Social from their Google Play store,” she said in an Aug. 31 post on Twitter. “This is not acceptable.”

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