Yesterday Apple abruptly removed the mega-popular 500px from the iTunes App store today citing the fact that users can search for photos that feature nudity.
I caught up with 500px CEO and co-founder Oleg Gutsol for a comment:
“Apple’s problem with the app is essentially that it was too easy to find nude photos by using the search function of the app. That functionality has been there since the beginning of our development of the app. This functionality previously has been something you had to explicitly enable “show nude content” on you account online. But that was not strict enough for Apple. They voiced concern earlier – so we created the opt in feature – but then Monday night things changed. We’re working with them on it and I’m it will be fixed soon. The result will be that no nude content will be searchable on the iOS platform. Android apps will stay the same. Google has not expressed concerns.” – Oleg Gutsol
The 500px app has amassed nearly 1 million downloads over the past 16 months and 80M page views per day.
Ironically, Oleg was on an important episode of chasejarvisLIVE last year: The Evolution of Your Creative Rights with the ASMP and Larry Lessig. We’re sending Oleg and his team the best of luck. Sounds like they have it under control.
Chase…you have the funniest commentators on the Internet. Great zingers up and down this thread.
So that’ll mean safari gets pulled too surely
That is absolutely ridiculous.
I really don’t understand why Apple sees it as their role to censor.
I used to do all of my photo book printing through Apple until one time they refused to print a glamour book because of nudity. Other vendors didn’t have a problem with it, so all Apple achieved was to lose a customer.
Stupid business practice.
I don’t understand these kinds of comments. Apple iTunes’ (the part of the company behind this) biggest market is tweens. They spend exponentially more money on iTunes than any other group (guess where they get the money?), so why not if they crack down on some nudity? Yes, Flickr should probably be inquired about, but it is through their e-distributor and to their products, so they can do what they deem is correct in accordance to their set of application terms. Safari and web browsers have histories and parental locks which I can only assume that 500px doesn’t have. No one seems to have ever taken a business class.
They really should take down Tumblr, because I really can’t get away from all the tits and ass on there.
If that’s their policy then that’s their policy. Who are we to tell them how to run iTunes? You can however, simply not shop/visit there. Plain and simple.