Conservative social media figure Candace Owens took to Twitter to implore her followers to boycott Apple — in a tweet that was sent from her iPhone.
Owens spoke out against the news that the tech giant was cutting ties with the controversial social media platform Parler, which has been billed as a free speech haven and alternative to Twitter but which critics say has instead become a hotbed for extremism and violent rhetoric. Reports indicate that many of those who took part in the attack on the U.S. Capitol this week shared their plans on Parler.
As BuzzFeed News reported, Google cut ties with the outlet and Apple followed, booting it from their store and announcing that the site would be cut off from its cloud hosting service Amazon Web Services. In an email to Parler, the company said that the site had failed to institute proper moderation to take down violent content and threats.
“Recently, we’ve seen a steady increase in this violent content on your website, all of which violates our terms,” the email read.
“It’s clear that Parler does not have an effective process to comply with the AWS terms of service.”
The platform is expected to be taken down after losing its hosting services on Sunday, remaining inaccessible until it can line up a replacement.
The decision was met with pushback from some right-wing figures, many of whom had accused social media outlets of being biased against conservatives after some prominent figures were banned for rules violations. After President Donald Trump was banned for repeated rules violations, many encouraged him to move to Parler instead.
Trump had attempted to tweet messages speaking out against his ban using the official @POTUS account that belongs to the office of the president, but they were quickly deleted. The site also suspended an account belonging to his campaign after the president tried to circumvent the ban and use it to send messages.
Owens has been vocal against what she sees as censorship from Apple, sending a message this weekend calling for people to boycott the tech giant.
“There needs to be a class action civilian lawsuit against Google and Apple. And we need to stop using their product,” she tweeted .
“Trump needs to join Parler. Parler needs to get ready to drop a serious lawsuit. You cannot censor 75 million Americans. This is insane.”
You first pic.twitter.com/xW7ClEPZs2
— Whodat (@awesoMeLee1829) January 9, 2021
But as many noted, a message at the bottom of her tweet said that it was sent using the Twitter app on her iPhone. Many mocked Owens for what they saw as hypocrisy.