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I wonder if they're also removing the apps used to control women's lives in Saudi Arabia.

by ar-jan 7y ago

scarface74 7y ago
While the apps are atrocious. The apps from what I csn tell are just front ends for websites and services being offered. They don’t do anything on the phone itself that takes advantage of special permissions. Of course they should remove them too.
- adrianN 7y ago
  I don't support the way women are treated in SA, but I don't really see why Apple should get to be the global moral police. Those applications are presumably perfectly legal where they are used.
  - airstrike 7y ago
    The App Store isn't only curated on the basis of legality. Research shows customers do care about a company's ethics / moral stance, so I don't see why Apple wouldn't want to do this.
  - jasonlotito 7y ago
    > but I don't really see why Apple should get to be the global moral police. Apple already takes a moral stance on certain things. This isn't a debate. If they don't want to allow something on their App store, they will shut it down, even if it's 100% legal. These are the slipper slopes people have talked about for years. This is not new. Apple has shown that if it doesn't want to support something, they won't. This means it's perfectly reasonable to hold them to account for things that are supported by their platform. This is why some platforms simply don't do any policing, or very limited.
  - Grue3 7y ago
    Porn is also perfectly legal, yet you can't have a porn app on App Store. Since Apple decided to play moral arbiter, it's perfectly fine to judge them when they allow something like that on their platform.
- jmkni 7y ago
  Doesn't that violate the Apple store's terms of use in a completely different way (ie adds no functionality outside of what the user can do in the browser?)
  - scarface74 7y ago
    Of course not. If that were the case, no app would be approved.
cobbzilla 7y ago
I mentioned this once before, but there are reports of women escaping KSA by surreptitiously using their guardian’s phone, approving travel, and getting the heck out before the guardian figures out what is going on. Their laws are their laws, and they suck. I’d rather have an app that at least allows some women to escape.
KirinDave 7y ago
Why go right to Saudi Arabia? Are they going to do more about spousal spyware in the US and Europe? It's a popular product, and in many places in the US the law is as tolerant of spousal abuse as they are in SA. We see thousands of examples every year of domestic abusers in the US and UK getting slaps on the wrist for things that would have been assault charges without a marriage license in play. I agree, SA's culture promotes a toxic repression of women. But before Apple goes world policing I'd like to see them take a domestic stand, because last time I checked spouse spyware apps are still in the store and aren't auto-banned. Please correct me if Apple took action since then.

I wonder if they're also removing the apps used to control women's lives in Saudi Arabia.

by ar-jan 7y ago

I wonder if they're also removing the apps used to control women's lives in Saudi Arabia.

While the apps are atrocious. The apps from what I csn tell are just front ends for websites and services being offered. They don’t do anything on the phone itself that takes advantage of special permissions. Of course they should remove them too.

adrianN 7y ago
I don't support the way women are treated in SA, but I don't really see why Apple should get to be the global moral police. Those applications are presumably perfectly legal where they are used.
- airstrike 7y ago
  The App Store isn't only curated on the basis of legality. Research shows customers do care about a company's ethics / moral stance, so I don't see why Apple wouldn't want to do this.
- jasonlotito 7y ago
  > but I don't really see why Apple should get to be the global moral police. Apple already takes a moral stance on certain things. This isn't a debate. If they don't want to allow something on their App store, they will shut it down, even if it's 100% legal. These are the slipper slopes people have talked about for years. This is not new. Apple has shown that if it doesn't want to support something, they won't. This means it's perfectly reasonable to hold them to account for things that are supported by their platform. This is why some platforms simply don't do any policing, or very limited.
- Grue3 7y ago
  Porn is also perfectly legal, yet you can't have a porn app on App Store. Since Apple decided to play moral arbiter, it's perfectly fine to judge them when they allow something like that on their platform.
jmkni 7y ago
Doesn't that violate the Apple store's terms of use in a completely different way (ie adds no functionality outside of what the user can do in the browser?)
- scarface74 7y ago
  Of course not. If that were the case, no app would be approved.

cobbzilla 7y ago

I mentioned this once before, but there are reports of women escaping KSA by surreptitiously using their guardian’s phone, approving travel, and getting the heck out before the guardian figures out what is going on. Their laws are their laws, and they suck. I’d rather have an app that at least allows some women to escape.

KirinDave 7y ago

Why go right to Saudi Arabia? Are they going to do more about spousal spyware in the US and Europe? It's a popular product, and in many places in the US the law is as tolerant of spousal abuse as they are in SA. We see thousands of examples every year of domestic abusers in the US and UK getting slaps on the wrist for things that would have been assault charges without a marriage license in play. I agree, SA's culture promotes a toxic repression of women. But before Apple goes world policing I'd like to see them take a domestic stand, because last time I checked spouse spyware apps are still in the store and aren't auto-banned. Please correct me if Apple took action since then.