Apple CEO Tim Cook Says Talking Could Return To App Store ‘If They Get Their Moderation Together’

© Karl Mondon / Digital First Media / The Mercury News via Getty Images
Apple boss Tim Cook said Parler still has a chance to return to the App Store. Karl Mondon / Digital First Media / The Mercury News via Getty Images

• Apple could add Speak to its App Store if the app steps up its moderation efforts, Apple CEO Tim Cook told Fox News on Sunday.
• Apple withdrew Speak from its platform in the wake of the deadly siege on Capitol Hill after finding that the network did not adequately control content that promoted violence.
• Google and Amazon have both also removed Talking from their platforms.
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The conservatively-leaning social media app Talk could return to the Apple App Store if it steps up its moderation, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

Apple started the app from its platform after the Jan.6 Capitol siege, claiming at the time that the service had failed to remove content that promoted violence. Google also removed the app from its store, while Amazon removed it from its web service hosting platform.

The service has gained popularity among supporters of President Donald Trump and members of the far right due to its lack of moderation. But the app will need to make changes if it intends to land on Apple’s App Store, Cook told host Chris Wallace in an interview broadcast Sunday.

“We just hung them up,” Cook said. “And so if they get their moderation together, they’ll go back.”

Cook said Apple does not see the promotion of violence as a form of free speech, and that the millions of apps on the company’s App Store must meet Apple’s terms of service.

“We looked at the incitement to violence that [Parler]. And we don’t see freedom of speech and incitement to violence as intersecting, ”Cook said. We have rules and regulations, and we just ask people to obey them. “

Parler called its dismantling a “coordinated attack” by the tech giants.

Read more: Apple reportedly ditched its most controversial feature in upcoming MacBook Pro release shows company is finally listening to customers

Big Tech has criticized President Trump and his supporters since rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan.6 in an insurgency that left five people dead. Almost every major social media platform has banned or suspended the president, and Twitter has purged thousands of accounts associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory.

“It was one of the saddest times of my life. To see an attack on our capital, an attack on our democracy,” Cook said of the insurgency. “I felt like I was in some kind of alternate reality, to be honest with you. It couldn’t happen.”

Cook appeared on Fox News Sunday to discuss Apple’s $ 100 million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, a set of projects that the CEO says are aimed at providing opportunities for communities of color. He said the police murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man last year, made the program urgent.

“We’re excited to be able to do our part here, and we hope more people will follow,” Cook said. “I think it can be extremely transformative. I think it can make a big difference in people’s lives, and that’s why we’re so excited about it.”

The pledge spends $ 25 million to launch the Propel Center, a learning center that will be built in Atlanta for students of historically black colleges and universities. The tech giant also plans to open an Apple Developer Academy in downtown Detroit, which will train 1,000 students annually in coding, design, marketing and professionalism skills.