Too offensive for Apple

Apple · Enshittification · Loops

4 minutes

Loops is a fediverse version of TikTok. Here’s the exact review I posted to the Apple AppStore when it came out of Testflight beta testing:

Enshittification resistant short-form video

I’ve been using Loops during its beta phase and I’m very happy to see it now in the general appstore. Loops is decentralized which means that there’s no single person or entity that can take it over and remake algorithms to their benefit.

Loops is for you. No ads. No evil algorithms. Just shoot your videos and share - and follow the people you want without weird content popping up.

5/5 - this is awesome.

One hour after I had submitted my review I got an email from Apple, letting me know it had been removed for violation of the terms and services.

Dear Troed,

We are writing to inform you that your customer review for Loops by Pixelfed is not in compliance with the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions, Submissions Guidelines under Section L.

Due to the violation of the Submissions Guidelines noted above, we removed your submitted review as part of routine moderation practices, during which automated processes were used. You can submit a review by following the Submissions Guidelines, or learn about your Redress Rights in Connection with the European Union Digital Services Act.

Apple

Hmm. Well, ok, “automated processes” means I guess they got something wrong. After all, I can’t see anything under Section L that could remotely apply to my review.

Submissions Guidelines: You may not use the Services to:

  • post any materials that (i) you do not have permission, right or license to use, or (ii) infringe on the rights of any third party;
  • post objectionable, offensive, unlawful, deceptive, inaccurate, or harmful content;
  • post personal, private or confidential information belonging to others;
  • request personal information from a minor;
  • impersonate or misrepresent your affiliation with another person, or entity;
  • post or transmit spam, including but not limited to unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, or informational announcements;
  • post, modify, or remove a rating or review in exchange for any kind of compensation or incentive;
  • post a dishonest, abusive, harmful, misleading, or bad-faith rating or review, or a rating or review that is irrelevant to the Content being reviewed;
  • plan or engage in any illegal, fraudulent, or manipulative activity.

After having posted about it on Mastodon, I got feedback that indicated that maybe they thought I was somehow doing this as a favor (unpaid or paid) to Dansup, the author. Since that wasn’t the case I decided to indeed make use of my rights under the DSA and ask for redress. Now, I’m skipping a whole story here in itself, let’s just say Apple linked to general customer support who had no idea what to do with this. It took them three full weeks and a lot of effort from a personal customer service agent to get something.

And this is what I got:

Dear Troed Sångberg,

After examination of your complaint regarding the removed review for Loops by Pixelfed, the original decision has been upheld and the review has not been reinstated.

We have made this decision because the review is not in compliance with the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions.

You can resubmit a review by following the Submissions Guidelines under Section L of the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions ( https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/ww/) .

For more information about redress options, please visit our Digital Services Act information site here: [https://www.apple.com/legal/dsa/en/redress-options.html].

Sincerely, Apple

Now, the astute reader probably spots that they actually didn’t motivate the decision - which they have to - but at this point I already knew what my next step would be.

See, what I assume this team within Apple doesn’t know is that us Europeans can use the rights we have under the GDPR to request a copy of all data a company keeps on us. And so I did. What I didn’t expect once I got it was what the actual motivation for the removal of my review was.

Offensive Content

Well. I guess Apple would be rather alone in that opinion, don’t you think?