Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store
buzzfeednews.com
Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store
1–10 of 21 posts
Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store
#2Makes sense, but I wonder why now. Twitter’s ban?
It was VERY odd that they removed his podcasts but left the apps up. The App Store has much stricter rules than the podcast directory.
Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store
#3Makes sense, but I wonder why now. Twitter’s ban? It was VERY odd that they removed his podcasts but left the apps up. The App Store has much stricter rules than the podcast directory.
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Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store
#4Makes sense, but I wonder why now. Twitter’s ban? It was VERY odd that they removed his podcasts but left the apps up. The App Store has much stricter rules than the podcast directory.
I feel like we could just be overthinking it. They probably waited to capture enough evidence to come back with if this blows back on them.
Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store
#5Makes sense, but I wonder why now. Twitter’s ban? It was VERY odd that they removed his podcasts but left the apps up. The App Store has much stricter rules than the podcast directory.
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Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store
#6I'm not a fan of Alex Jones, I barely know who he is, but all this banning seems a bit risky to me. Hosting companies have generally had "Safe Harbor" protection against liability for content that third parties post on their platforms. However if they actively start policing and censoring content, they're more involved, and might now be more liable in other claims of offensive or defamatory content.
Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store
#7I'm not a fan of Alex Jones, I barely know who he is, but all this banning seems a bit risky to me. Hosting companies have generally had "Safe Harbor" protection against liability for content that third parties post on their platforms. However if they actively start policing and censoring content, they're more involved, and might now be more liable in other claims of offensive or defamatory content.
They don’t allow porn in the App Store among other things. He says “everyone is trying to stop him from telling the truth”. Maybe banning him for his actions helped prove his point, but I doubt it gave him more legitimacy than the fact the Trump called-in to his show. I personally think there’s a fine balance between normalizing these people by providing a platform and encouraging free-speech.
They didn’t ban him for promoting a questionable grasp on reality, they seem to have banned him for sharing content of him harassing people or sharing hate speech. Maybe all of these platforms should have a filter that users can disable if they want to see it?
Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store
#8I'm not a fan of Alex Jones, I barely know who he is, but all this banning seems a bit risky to me. Hosting companies have generally had "Safe Harbor" protection against liability for content that third parties post on their platforms. However if they actively start policing and censoring content, they're more involved, and might now be more liable in other claims of offensive or defamatory content.
This isn't about legal liability (which is what safe harbor refers to) it's about Apple's ToS.
TFA says app store guidelines say apps that are "defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content, including references or commentary about religion, race, sexual orientation, gender, national/ethnic origin, or other targeted groups, particularly if the app is likely to humiliate, intimidate, or place a targeted individual or group in harm’s way" are rejected.
"Holding contributors to a standard" is not legally risky just like HN removing comments that are against the rules is not legally risky.
Apple seems to have made it clear they don't want to be a dumpster.
Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store
#9Good. Nobody owes Alex Jones his own free publishing platform. Nothing is stopping him from using money to hire "professionals" to set up a colo/hosting environment and do everything on httpd he fully controls. There already is an Infowars website, and as far as I know, its upstream ISP are still happy to take his money. It will have a lot less visitors, though.
Re: Apple Just Permanently Banned Infowars' App from the App Store
#10I'm not a fan of Alex Jones, I barely know who he is, but all this banning seems a bit risky to me. Hosting companies have generally had "Safe Harbor" protection against liability for content that third parties post on their platforms. However if they actively start policing and censoring content, they're more involved, and might now be more liable in other claims of offensive or defamatory content.
This isn't about legal liability (which is what safe harbor refers to) it's about Apple's ToS. TFA says app store guidelines say apps that are "defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content, including references or commentary about religion, race, sexual orientation, gender, national/ethnic origin, or other targeted groups, particularly if the app is likely to humiliate, intimidate, or place a targeted individ…
I imagine that Apple is ultimately doing this for the same reason all businesses do it. There's no reason for a business to unnecessarily restrict its customer base. Apple would like to sell its iPhone to people whether or not they support abortion.
Unfortunately I feel that big corp understands the value of secularism better than the rest of America, perhaps because they are constrained by the imperative to be more effective than their competitors, including with their workforce and customers.