Michal Ždanský Apple is very prudish about the closed iOS system, especially when it comes to erotica and pornography. No app with adult content is allowed on the App Store, and the only way to directly access the raunchy material is through an internet browser. However, as the events of the last few days have shown, such content can also be found in other social applications, namely Twitter, Tumblr or Flickr. However, she escalated the whole situation the new Vine app, which is currently owned by Twitter after an earlier buyout.
Vine is an app for sharing short six-second video clips, basically a sort of Instagram for video. Just like on Twitter, each user has their own timeline, where videos created by people you follow appear. In addition, it also includes recommended videos, the so-called "Editor's Pick". However, the problem arose when, according to Twitter, "due to human error" a pornographic clip appeared among the recommended videos. Thanks to that recommendation, he got into the timeline of all users, including minors.
Fortunately, the video was NSFW-filtered in the timeline and you had to tap on the clip to start it (other videos play automatically otherwise), but many users were probably not thrilled when porn appeared among their favorite cat clips and Gangnam Style parodies . The whole problem started to be solved only when the media started drawing attention to it. An apparently trivial matter has caused a major controversy and cast a shadow over the tightly controlled iOS ecosystem.
But Vine isn't the only source of pornographic material reaching iOS devices through Twitter's apps. Even the official client of this network will offer countless results with titillating content when searching for #porn and similar hashtags. Similar results can also be obtained by searching in the Tumblr or Flickr applications. It seems as if all the puritanism in Apple's iOS is getting out of hand.
The reaction did not take long. Late last week, Apple listed Vine as an "Editor's Choice" app in the App Store. In response to the "sex scandal," Apple stopped promoting Vine, and although it's still in the App Store, it's not listed in any of the Featured categories to keep it as low-profile as possible. But with that, Apple started another controversy. He showed that developers are measured by a double standard. Last week removed the 500px app from the App Store due to allegedly easy access to pornographic material if the user entered the correct keywords in the search box.
While the 500px app disappeared without causing any scandal, Vine remains in the App Store, as does the official Twitter client, where in both cases pornographic material can be accessed very easily. The reason is obvious, Twitter is one of the partners of Apple, after all, the integration of this social network can be found in both iOS and OS X. So, while Twitter is dealt with in gloves, other developers are punished without mercy, even through no fault of their own, unlike Vines.
The whole situation drew even more attention to the vague and often confusing rules that set the App Store guidelines and showed that Apple uses unusual and sometimes unorthodox criteria for app decisions that apply differently to each developer. The whole problem is not the fact that pornographic material can be found in apps, which is quite difficult to avoid in the case of user content, but rather the way Apple deals with various developers and the hypocrisy that accompanies this deal.
Well, that's why we have iOS as a secondary platform, we are afraid of a completely opaque approval process, which is a bit like Russian roulette. Does anyone have a similar experience?
That's American puritanism, one pin and it's a scandal. If they filmed someone shooting someone's brain out, that's fine. But as Steve once said, if you want to have shy girls on your phone, buy an Android :)
yes, but this is a bit silly. as someone remarked the other day – I can then disable Safari too, because I can search and view hot babes in it.
500px is back and God knows what other reason there was
Prudent means excessively shy..