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Apple's Tim Cook says Parler must tighten up moderation to get back on App Store

He distinguishes between free speech and incitement to violence in a Fox News Sunday interview.

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The Parler social media app on Apple's App Store

The Parler social media app may return to the App Store.

Stephen Shankland/CNET

Parler could return to the App Store if it improves its moderation, Apple boss Tim Cook told Fox News Sunday in an interview segment released Friday. The controversial social networking app was banned by Apple, Amazon and Google due concerns the service could be used to promote more violence after last week's attack on the US Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump.

"We don't consider that free speech and incitement to violence has an intersection," Cook said in the interview, which will air in full on this week's Fox News Sunday.

Responding to the notion that tech companies are restricting free speech, Cook noted that each company is acting independently and that Apple's App Store isn't designed to replicate the Internet. 

"We have rules and regulations, and we just ask that people abide by those," he said.

Neither Apple nor Parler immediately responded to requests for comment.