Apple recently took the well liked 500px app off the Apps Store, after some users complained there was pornography on the app. Apple has strict laws when governing the app store, many apps don’t make it past the initial reviewing process.
Now one of Apple’s biggest partners, Twitter, has a problem. Their app Vine, run by a team Twitter scooped up sometime last year for an unknown amount, has a serious porn problem.
So far, adding hashtags like #porn, #boobs, #nudes, etc, will result in explicit images showing on the feed. Vine’s only way to censor these images, for now, is to slap them with a privacy tag. The user can click to have the privacy tag removed and watch the six-second video.
We are unsure why Vine has not been able to simply delete these videos, it could be due to the mass number of people on Vine, or that Vine simply isn’t too bothered about the problem. Until they find an adequate solution, they will continue to have this problem.
The real question is what Apple will do, they took off 500px, a very good app in its own right. Vine has broke the same type of laws, with people uploading explicit videos. Does this app get time to redesign or will the righteous hand off Apple come down just as hard on them?
This is one of the first instances where Apple may be trapped in their own policies. Normally they only deal with themselves and previous Google for some services. Now Twitter and Facebook are partners in the app area.
We wonder if Apple can actually be that rash to Twitter, who are helping Apple modernise the operating system with more sharing and social aspects. If they can, then they need to explain or change the rules for developers like 500px.