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Parler returns to Apple's iOS App Store with Hive mind to moderate hate

All the vitriol still accessible from Android app, website

Parler, the social network favored by the far-right, is back up on Apple’s App Store and will apparently rely on AI algorithms to automatically flag hate speech.

Big Tech deplatformed Parler after it was used by Trump supporters to whip up hate and violence amid an attempted insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6.

Parler said the shutdown of its web hosting, and delisting of its applications, infringed free speech rights; it is embroiled in a breach-of-contract spat with Amazon over the matter. The Parler app was dropped from Google and Apple’s app stores and its social media accounts were removed on Twitter and Facebook. Amazon Web Services refused to host its cloud servers.

Now, its iOS app has been reinstated on Apple’s digital souk and users can access the right-wing focused platform via iPhone and iPad devices again.

Apple’s senior director of US government affairs Tim Powderly last month said Parler would be allowed back into the store once it was able to moderate its users' content.

Parler has employed Hive, an AI startup, to run content posted on its app through algorithms that should detect whether the text is safe enough to view. If the software detects a high level of hate speech using sentiment analysis, the posts are flagged for a team of human moderators to review and delete, according to the Washington Post.

Content is less strictly moderated on other platforms that host Parler, however. Users that access the social network over the web or on their Android-powered smartphones will be given the choice of whether they want to see the inappropriate posts or not, even if they’ve been flagged.

Parler’s CEO Mark Meckler previously told The Register that the company had “put in place systems that will better detect unlawful speech and allow users to filter content undesirable to them, while maintaining our strict prohibition against content moderation based on viewpoint.”

The app isn’t officially available on Google’s Play Store, though the Android build can be installed manually on handsets according to instructions on Parler’s website. A Google spokesperson previously told us the web giant doesn't recommend its users download apps outside the Play Store.

The Register has asked Parler and Apple for further comment. ®

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