You wouldn’t think that there would be a problem with an app that aggregates news that’s currently publicly available on the web, but apparently there is. At least according to Apple.
New York-based developers Josh Begley is befuddled. Why does Apple keep rejecting his app?
In the latest rejection email, Apple states that they “found that [the] app contains content that many audiences would find objectionable, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.” What objectionable content is Begley trying to push here? Porn? Hate Speech?
Nope. Begley’s app Drones+ simply notifies users when the U.S. carries out an unmanned drone strike. Users can enable push notifications, so they receive a message whenever the news of another strike rolls in. The app also contains a map that plots all of the points where recent strikes have occurred – whether that be Pakistan, or Yemen, or anywhere else that the U.S. has an active drone campaign.
Begley told Wired that the app doesn’t feature violent content in the form of photos of videos – just notifications based on news stories pulled from the UK’s Bureau of Investigative Journalism. These news stories are accessible to anyone online at any time, Drones+ simply aggregates them.
Made my first iPhone app. Clearly, Apple loved it. http://t.co/j1q9VadY
This isn’t the first time that Apple has rejected Drones+, but it is the firs time that they’ve had a problem with the content. The first rejection was based on the feeling the the app was simply not useful. The second rejection had to do with an issue regarding a corporate logo.
“If the content is found to be objectionable, and it’s literally just an aggregation of news, I don’t know how to change that,” Begley says.