Apple removes popular photo app over ‘possible child porn’

PanARMENIAN.Net - Apple says it has been forced to remove a popular photography app due to customer complaints over "possible child pornography", according to BBC News.

The 500px app, developed in Canada, has been downloaded almost a million times - but the iPhone-maker said it was now a "clear violation" of its guidelines.

Google has not removed the app from its app store, and would not speculate publicly on its future.

500px said it had never received any complaints about such illegal content.

"We don't allow pornographic images," 500px's chief operating officer Evgeny Tchebotarev told TechCrunch. "If something is purely pornographic, it's against our terms and it's deleted."

He added that while there are nude images on the service, they were of a tasteful nature. Nudity is filtered by a "safe search" function which is turned on by default. "It's not about pornography, it's about fine art," he said.

In a statement, Apple was clear about its reasons for removing the app which had been available since October 2011.

The company said: "The app was removed from the App Store for featuring pornographic images and material, a clear violation of our guidelines. We also received customer complaints about possible child pornography. We've asked the developer to put safeguards in place to prevent pornographic images and material in their app."

Apple has not revealed the exact nature of the images which were complained about. Despite the app's removal from the Apple store, at the time of writing it remains in Google's store - which has comparatively looser controls on content.

"We don't comment on individual applications - however, you can check out our policies for more information," a Google spokesman told the BBC. "We remove applications that violate our policies, such as apps that are illegal or that promote hate speech."