Apple Inc.’s new war on sexy iPhone apps raises some interesting legal issues. By asserting that it is the arbiter of what is acceptable content in an iPhone app, it would seem to be implicitly taking on responsibility for all app-related content.
That could leave the company open to lawsuits from people who suffer losses from inaccurate or missing information on an iPhone app. It could also leave Apple exposed to charges that it’s promoting violence through savage and increasingly realistic video games.
Most telecom companies long ago decided that they wanted no part of policing the content that travels over their networks, because of the endless legal headaches it would cause. (Imagine if the phone company were responsible for every lewd suggestion or racist comment that travelled over its wires.) Telecom firms take the position that they are merely a carrier of content, not an arbiter of it.
Apple seems to be following a different path. As reported in the Financial Post, the company has purged about 5,000 applications featuring sexually suggestive material from its App Store within the past few weeks. Apple has defended the move by saying it was reacting to complaints from users.
Perhaps so but Apple appears to have been arbitrary in deciding which apps it will allow in its online store and which it won’t. Some sexy apps, including one for Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue and another from Playboy, are still available for download. But Apple is turning thumbs down on sexy apps from other major publishers, such as Bild, the German tabloid, which wanted to market an app that would allow users to undress the tabloid’s girl of the day by shaking their phones. By asserting its right to block apps it considers offensive, Apple is implicitly endorsing what remains. And that could lead to some intriguing court cases in months to come.
Freelance business journalist Ian McGugan blogs for the Financial Post.