Apple and Fortnite maker are fighting or rather fighting again. This time the tussle is not over App Store billing, but over a porn app. And caught in this crossfire is Reddit. In a series of posts, Fortnite maker Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney slammed Apple for not removing the Reddit app from iOS App Store, claiming that the app has a large amount of porn.He went on to add that Apple has even given an Editor’s Choice Award to Reddit.
The app that Apple has called ‘dangerous’ is the adult content browser app called Hot Tub iPhone app. It is available on AltStore PAL, an alternative app marketplace made possible under Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). AltStore PAL has claimed in a social media post that Hot Tub is “the world’s 1st Apple-approved porn app”. Apple has fiercely denied this description. Apple rejected the description, saying that the availability of such an app would “undermine consumer trust and confidence” in its mobile ecosystem. “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 company said in a statement. “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.”
Apple has slammed the European Union (EU) over the porn app. The iPhone maker warned that the bloc’s digital rules opening the way for third-party app store downloads undermines consumer confidence in the company. The Europe’s Digital Markets Act rulebook forces Big Tech companies to open their services to more competition, including allowing phone users to download from alternative app stores instead of being limited to the official app stores from Apple and Google.
As to how Epic Games come into picture, AltStore is backed by a grant from Epic Games.
What Epic Games CEO said
“Apple is being extremely disingenuous in attacking the European Union here. The iOS App Store hosts the Reddit app, which provides access to massive amounts of porn. Apple knows this, permits it, and gave Reddit a 17+ (!!!) rating and Editors Choice award,” wrote Sweeney.
“As a recently deleted (by who?) post on the r/iOS subreddit explains, Apple’s iOS App Store welcomes apps that host tons of porn, as Reddit does, as long as the majority of the content isn’t porn, and the app has controls to hide the porn,” Sweeney wrote in another post.
“Here’s the Duck Duck Go cache of the deleted Reddit post explaining the policy. And I was going to post a list of currently active porn subreddits as well as porn and gore subreddits that Reddit hosted for years before eventually removing, but it’s too horrid to stomach,” Fornite CEO said in another post.
Other than these posts, there are posts where Epic Games CEO has slammed Apple’s App Store policies, calling them ‘senseless’.