Apple Rejects App That Tracks U.S. Drone Strikes

Post by daten » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 6:14 PM UTC

sampsonjs wrote: post #32

DrJokepu wrote: post #13

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I believe the following parts of the iOS App Store Review Guidelines answer your question: * We have lots of kids downloading lots of apps, and parental controls don't work unless the parents set them up (many don't). So know that we're keeping an eye out for the kids. * We will reject Apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, "I…

I think I missed something. I'm pretty sure I knew what death was before I hit puberty. Does this app include photos of the result of the strikes? Is there supposed to be a "talk" you have with your kids around age 12 or 13 where you explain what drones are and reveal for the first time that there is a war in Afghanistan and Pakistan?

Post by genwin » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 6:22 PM UTC

mcantelon wrote: post #82

klawed wrote: post #35

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Apple has never stated that the purpose of the appstore is to support democracy. And I think it would be hard to argue that the availability of apps (or lack thereof) in Apple's store, which is not even close to a monopoly, has any impact on democracy. I think what's really going on here is that Apple wants to avoid providing apps that might be politically divisive. EDIT: qualifying availability of apps as within App…

>I think what's really going on here is that Apple wants to avoid providing apps that might be politically divisive. That's called "censorship". Apple's store has an impact on democracy because Apple is very influential and other companies are likely to imitate their policies. Lots of young people are getting exposed to Apple's flavor of personal computer so, to them, censorship of software will seem normal.

Post by ralfd » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 6:29 PM UTC

nutjob123 wrote: post #102

enraged_camel wrote: post #66

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While this is true, security is a massive concern. Just look at how many malicious apps were in the Android store just last year, vs. in the Apple store.

How many malicious apps were in the Android store? A few? A dozen? Thats a pretty good ratio out of the hundreds of thousands available.

Post by mtgx » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 6:34 PM UTC

at-fates-hands wrote: post #85

dlikhten wrote: post #47

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Android FTW. I know this pops up constantly, but this is EXACTLY the reason I advocate for android. This sort of shit does not fly there. Apple has the ability to censor which even the government can't and worse is that it's fully legal. I really wish people would take these stories as a sign that we need to focus on the android market. FWIW: I am not advocating for the baby & bathwater argument. I think we must focu…

I actually would've thought the MS Windows Phone App Store would be even more fertile ground. Not sure how stringent their policies are, but a quick Google search only turned up a rejected Twitter content scraping app which was rejected. Not to mention if anybody needs more apps, its the Windows Phone App store.

Post by genwin » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 6:35 PM UTC

ktizo wrote: post #59

myared wrote: post #6

The irony is that this news aggregator is being denied, yet someone could make a game called "Drone Wars" where you operate a drone on missions and Apple would have no problem with it.

Perhaps the coder could make a game, which invites you to play at flying each drone attack as each one gets reported in, with lots of american flags and funny voiced terrorists to kill. Call it "Patriot Death Force" and have a heavy metal sound track and stuff. That would probably get through fine.