OPINION: Apple is furious that a third-party iPhone app store is marketing an ‘Apple-approved’ hardcore porn app after a change in EU law left the tech giant powerless to prevent it. Apple’s anger is largely justified.
For the first time in the 17 years of being consumer technology’s most iconic product, the Apple iPhone has verged beyond its maker’s control.
This isn’t due to a sentient AI gone awry, akin to sci-fi lore, it’s due to some old-fashioned human intervention. And, a year after a shift change in the EU law, the effects are now being felt.
Due to a Digital Markets Act mandating third-party app stores must be allowed on iOS, Hot Tub, the first “first Apple-approved porn app” is now available to be downloaded on iPhone.
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Except it’s not Apple-approved. It’s very much Apple-disapproved. And Apple can do nothing about it, except to check it was clear for malware and to ensure it hit “baseline platform integrity standards” such is the limited control it has over what goes on third-party app stores. Hence the ability for AltStore to tenuously cite Apple approval.
HotTub is described as “adult content browser” that enables users to search and play videos from various popular websites. You can probably guess which ones.
This app wouldn’t have had a sniff of passing through the App Store guidelines under the old system that is still in effect in the UK and the United States.
And Apple is furious about it
“Contrary to the false statements made by the marketplace developer, we certainly do not approve of this app and would never offer it in our App Store. The truth is that we are required by the European Commission to allow it to be distributed by marketplace operators like AltStore and Epic who may not share our concerns for user safety.”
“We are deeply concerned about the safety risks that hardcore porn apps of this type create for EU users, especially kids,” the company said in a statement first reported by Bloomberg. “This app and others like it will undermine consumer trust and confidence in our ecosystem that we have worked for more than a decade to make the best in the world.”
It’s hard to find fault in Apple’s statement. Sure, it’s easy enough to watch porn via an iPhone. Apple’s own Safari web browser doesn’t limit it, for example. But the world wide web was designed to be open long prior to the advent of the iPhone.
When Apple set up its own pioneering App Store, it made decisions about whether to offer certain products within the store it owned, for use on the products it built and sold. Some could call it moralising, but that’s the right of any company. That remains the case. You can’t buy hardcore porn DVDs in HMV for example, even though other stores choose to sell them.
Apple have long argued its essential for user privacy, user security and user safety, as well as upholding its own standards to maintain full control over its marketplace.
Critics have argued it just allows Apple to monopolise the digital market place, stifle competition and claim a significant share of the spoils from each app purchase in ‘tribute’.
The problem is both arguments had merit. The sweeping EU mandate ensured fairer competition without compensating for the other part of the equation. Politicians ‘fixing’ one thing only to break another in the process? Who’d have possibly thunk it?
Direction of traffic
The direction of traffic here is concerning. Apple has stated before it believes pornographic iPhone apps are just one possible result the new EU laws. Apple has previously stated concerns over the sale of illegal drugs and weapons via third-party App Stores, as well as the presence of apps encouraging hate speech.
For its part, the AltStore is linking the launch of this app to charitable donations via its Mastodon page. I’m no prude, but there’s a slight disconnect to go from crowing about pioneering a pornography app while expressing deep concern about the plight of people working in the deeply exploitative sex industry.
“Because it’s the season of love, we’ll also be donating ALL our Patreon earnings for the month of February to organizations supporting sex workers and the LGBTQ+ community,” the store owners said. “We feel this is necessary to fight back against recent harmful policies by politicians, Meta, and others, and we encourage everyone to help however you can.”
In a deeply uncertain digital world – where the billionaire owners of our social media apps are falling in line with a damaging US government agenda, and where Elon Musk is reportedly pilfering government departments Americans trusted to keep their data safe – there was something comforting about having a watchful guard dog like Apple casting an overly-stringent eye over what was safe and welcome on the App Store and what wasn’t.
From a user safety and privacy point of view, I cannot see what good can come of the advent of third-party app stores making their way on to iPhones. But at least the monopoly was crushed, right?
