Apple pulls intifada app from App Store for ‘violating developer guidelines’

“Once again, Apple has fallen back on its developer guidelines as a reason for pulling an app that caused a public-relations catastrophe,” Nicole Martinelli reports for Cult of Mac.

“In just about 24 hours after a letter of complaint from an Israeli minister, it removed the Third Intifada app from the iTunes store,” Martinelli reports. “‘We removed this app from the App Store because it violates the developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people,’ an Apple spokesman said Wednesday evening.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lava_Head_UK” for the heads up.]

Related article:
Israel asks Apple to remove intifada iPhone app – June 21, 2011

39 Comments

  1. “violates the developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people”

    Not being political or taking any side here..

    But how the hell can an App like this even get approved in the first place? Regardless of who/what it’s about..
    Kinda like Approving a KKK app thinking maybe it won’t offend anyone… then going back to the Guidelines when people complain.

    Maybe the approval process is just some Server going through the code making sure it’s all legit code and no actual person looks at the app?

    Yeah i’m glad apple pulled it, but it just makes you wonder how it got there to begin with…
    I think the approval process needs some rework.

        1. So if like i said, the KKK made an app asking everyone to kill any non-white…
          you say “How else can one guess whether something is offensive if people dont complain.”

          ahh, so simple logic can’t be used.

  2. Lol, i just read some of the comments on the cultofmac website on this… “Apple is violating their freedom of speech”
    I’m sorry, Apple is a Company… Not a Government. If they don’t want something up there… they can pull it. you can complain, but it’s their rules.

      1. You don’t get it.
        The people are complaining that apple removed the app.. Infringing on their free speech.
        Look up free speech, it’s to stop governments from prohibiting criticism of government by the people, there are no laws prohibiting a COMPANY from restricting speech in their own controlled environment.
        If apple says you can’t post porn apps in the app store, it’s not a free speech “violation”.
        The people claiming free speech violations against apple.. Don’t understand free speech.

  3. The fact that the app was pulled shows that Apple’s system works. There must be thousands of applications and updates to applications submitted to Apple every week so anything like an intifada app that slips through the net the first time can be pulled after users submit their complaints about it. Maybe it is not a perfect system but it is infinitely better than an anything-goes approach.

  4. Nothing will change on the ground .
    Israel as a Jewish state is doomed unless they can revive their birth rate .

    Tibet will be free , Palestine will be free , Kashmir will be free, as history has shown , no invader has ever won in the long term.

    But the cycle of violence will continue , like the Jews suffered under the nazis , now they use their might to oppress the Palestinians and in the future the Palestinins will oppress some one else .

    A vicious human cycle .
    Hopefully we can wake up together as one united .

    1. “Hopefully we can wake up together as one united .”

      Not as long as people believe as you do.

      And BTW, North America, South America, Australia, Turkey, are just four areas I can think of off the top of my head where invasions of other societies or religions have maintained power.

      I’m too tired to think enough to prove you even more wrong.

      1. @TowerTone,

        Typical American sentiment (we’ll always be here), but I never took you to be omniscient. Didn’t realise you knew the future.

        Every culture at its height seems to think they’ll last forever. When history proves that none ever last forever.

        1. Mine is not a sentiment, but a statement of reality.
          I don’t claim America will be here forever.
          Read again and tell me where I stated that.

          Take North America. The Native Americans succumbed to the Spanish, French, Russians, Dutch, and English.

          The French lost out to the English, the English to the Americans, the Spanish to the Mexicans, the Mexicans to the Americans (in some areas), the Russians sold out and ran, and the Canadians just dared anyone to come take their land of ice…;-)

          The Native Americans are still here in America, as are the Mexicans, although not in power, but rather to have become a PART of it.

          See how that can work? Wait, sorry. Most of those were Christian civilizations. My bad. They teach all that damn forgiveness and crap.

          Won’t apply to the Middle East….Alhamdulillah!

          In my formative years I was interested in the Spanish Empire and why it fell, even with all the riches of the New World. Understanding what happened to them showed me the road that America would eventually go down if she didn’t appreciate the spoils. I had hoped it would be from bringing other nations up to our levels of prosperity (as we have helped in many cases), but now I am afraid we will just be dragged down to the level of inconsequential.

          Praise be to Allah!….

      2. You counted North America, but within that, Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, etc were wrested from BOTH Indian and Mexican ownership by Anglo-Americans. You might also count the Norman invasion of England, since the natives essentially adopted the culture of the invader. Of course the Romans successfully Latinized Gaul, Iberia, Ilyria, etc. integrating Roman law, culture, and language. It wasn’t until they were swept yet again by the Goths, etc, that they shattered into regional entities. You could go on, but almost every square inch of this earth has been swept by invaders multiple times since before history, and it seems the only rightful owners are those who can take and hold a place.

        1. And the Indians (different nations) and Mexicans took their lands from others before we took it from them.

          The reason I used simplistic American history is because anytime I see someone use the term “typical American” I discover that they are the ones less educated.

    2. Don’t you drag Kashmir into this you ignoramus. Kashmir was and is an inalienable part of Hindu India and it’s the barbarian Islamic Mughals who invaded, slaughtered and forcibly converted thousands of Hindu pandits and desecrated their temples. Justice will prevail

      1. Yeah right! And pray tell us when there was a united Hindu India other than that created by the British? Its always was a collection of warring kingdoms…

  5. I wonder why no-one ever complains about the Russians taking Königsberg from Germany. About the same number of people were dispersed as in Palestine, but there are no bombs or terrorist groups there, why?

  6. Go Jews! I know an Israeli American citizen. He went back to Israel when the fighting got bad and capped some muslims. Fact: America allows you to be an American citizen and be in an army in 2 different countries. Israeli army and the French foreign legion, but you can’t be in the French foreign legion as a citizen in any other country other than France. You must renounce any other citizenship.

  7. Welcome to the Apple police state. It’s like 1984 all over again. The internet is a truly amazing place because it is “offensive to large groups of people”. It would take me about 30 seconds to find something on there that is ‘offensive’ to me – but is a passion for other people.

    The internet simply wouldn’t exist if Apple controlled it. Or rather, if it did, it would be some sterile corporate shopping mall with cheesy muzak piped in and black turtle-necked Apple police on every corner watching your every move.

    No thanks.

    1. Hope you still feel that way when your identity is stolen , your reputation is destroyed by a stalker , or you are cyber-bullied? Your attitude betrays a very naive ignorance, the ability to offend large groups of people is not what makes the internet amazing.

  8. It was most likely approved because the reviewer at Apple spoke Arabic and was sympathetic to the cause. Islamists have a long history of saying one thing in English and another thing in Arabic. I hope they fired the reviewer.

  9. Ap reviewers need to have an understanding of world dynamics, or what Intifada might even mean, in order to make an informed judgment or to see any potential red flags to ask further about such aps. I don’t know what the ap entailed, nor whether it was blatant or more subtle. But, education in the US today often lacks the depth for many employees to understand the potential ramifications of such aps. So, I would guess it would have been approved by someone who simply didn’t have a global or current events overview that would have led them to question the ap in the first place. Outsiders who know then draw Apple’s attention to the ap. Apple takes a fresh look, and handles it accordingly. I doubt Apple could handle it any other way.

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