Don’t call the apps Apple pulled Porn…
There have been a number of stories about Apple banning/removing “overtly sexual” content from the app store. To my knowledge it started with this post from TechCrunch
I think this is a problem for a number of reasons, from the fact that I don’t see a problem with this content being available (there are parental controls after all), to the fact that Apple had approved these apps only to pull them after the fact months later.
As troubling as all of that is, there is something else that I find disturbing: many of the posts and articles I see reporting on this refer to the banned apps as porn. For example John Gruber from Daring Fireball: Apple Removing Porno Apps From App Store
I would like to ask everyone to stop using the word “porn” when describing the apps that have been retroactively banned from the app store.
I don’t think anyone could legitimately call the apps that have been pulled as porn under the definition of pornography (obscene writings, drawings, photographs, or the like, esp. those having little or no artistic merit) or by the law (in the US: based on community standards). Regardless of how you define it, simple nudity, or titillation do not count as pornography.
Nor does Apple allow true pornography on the App Store, and never has. So none of the apps can be legitimately called porn. Quod Erat Demonstrandum, baby.
The apps pulled might be only suitable for adults only, but that is a much larger category than porn.
And as we learn more about what is being retroactively disallowed, we see it extends as far as swimsuits. Which again is a far far larger category than porn.
I think it is also a bit dangerous to blithely call the apps being rejected as porn, because the word holds a special negative place in so many people’s minds. It conjures up images that start with hardcore sex and go far worse. It makes it easy to defend this move as a good thing, and something we need to be protected against (despite the parental controls in the system).
So anyone writing about this issue, please — please! — don’t call it porn, because when you do you are just being lazy and judemental. What is happening is big, it is complicated, and there are a lot of issues involved. So even if you know where you stand, don’t muddy the waters by calling it porn.
Now that I have said that, I would like to suggest one possible reason for this change — at least one beyond the “there have been complaints” reason that Apple seems to have given.
A few days ago Apple quietly announced that they were extending the app store to 13 more countries.
One angle to this move by Apple I haven’t seen mentioned is the fact that the App Store is now available in a number of new countries: Armenia, Botswana, Bulgaria, Jordan, Kenya, Macedonia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal, Tunisia, and Uganda.
Many of these countries have very strict rules about what can and cannot be shown. Especially when it comes sexual, nude, semi nude, and suggestive content. In fact, I have an easier time believing the “complaints” came from prudish countries rather than prudish individuals.
I don’t know if we will ever find out exactly why this happened, but I fear it represents a race to the most blad, lowest common denominator content around. A world in which tip calculators rule the earth and the Vargas Girls must go into hiding…
