An iOS developer said Apple demonstrated that their app could be used to surf for porn by sending them a screenshot containing a pornographic image. Carl Smith shared the story of the rejection of Wave, an app for browsing Instagram and public images, in a blog post.
The explicit image was attached to an email rejecting the app on the basis that the process for flagging inappropriate content was inadequate …
It turns out Apple thought the best way to tell us our app could be used to surf porn was to surf for porn using our app. Then send us some pictures and say take a look at these! Except they said, “Please see the attached screenshot for more information.” So with no warning […]
They sent us a picture of a guy masturbating.
With great irony, Apple’s email contained no warning that the attachment was pornographic.
A censored version of the photo appears at the bottom of the blog post.
But no, they just sent porn to our employees without warning. Porn that our employees found offensive.
Apple has guidelines for reviewers asking them to help developers understand the reason an app has been rejected by illustrating with screenshots where possible, but we suspect this particular example may contravene another Apple guideline or two …