Apple’s Real issue is Porn Policy with the App Store
Digitally-speaking, almost anything can contain porn on the Internet. This is what Apple may be learning the hard way when Vine, Twitter's new video-sharing app, featured a six-second porn video in its Editor's Pick section.
Following its most recent app banning with 500 px, where the latest complaints related to porn were for potential child pornography, according to BBC, Apple is under fire again for its policy on banning sexually explicit content from its App Store.
Now, Vine has been in the spotlight for being one of the video-sharing apps where users can easily access pornography from, reports The Verge. However, there have also been speculations on the efficiency and enforcement of the App Store's policy on adult content.
Sydney Morning Herald reports that Apple may have a double standard when it comes to their porn policy. Otherwise, how come the bigger platforms such as Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and, most recently, Vine are still available despite the adult content, while other "lesser" apps are immediately removed?
"From the start, Apple has said they'd get the App Store wrong, and come across things they didn't anticipate, but that they'd learn and grow," said iMore editor Rene Richie in a statement reported by CNN. "This particular problem has been around for years, but as social sharing has become easier, it's come to the surface again."
Regarding Vine's potential removal, Apple has yet to comment on the app's future, reports ABC.
As of now, Apple has removed a few apps that share potentially explicit content, be it video or pictures. Viddy was also removed last year due to pornographic content. However, as Business Insider reports, Vine is still in operation-though it had been removed in the App Store's Editor's Choice section
Many are left to wonder, just how is Apple planning to handle the issue of explicit content in their App Store? Is their policy enough to filter the appropriate content for the market? Or will the double standard just ensure the bigger platforms that, explicit content or not, Apple will still cater to them in the App Store?