Apple has removed 500px – a popular photography app – from its App Store because of alleged complaints over possible child pornography.
The app, developed in Canada, has had nearly a million downloads since its introduction in October 2011, but Apple has now said it is in clear violation of its guidelines.
The developer claims it has never received any complaints about such illegal content. CEO Evgeny Tchebotarev said "We don't allow pornographic images. If something is purely pornographic, it's
against our terms and it's deleted." Tchebotarev added that while there are nude images on the service, they were of a tasteful nature. Nudity is filtered by a 'safe search' function which
activates by default. "It's not about pornography, it's about fine art," he said.
In a statement Apple said: "The app was removed from the App Store for featuring pornographic images and material, a clear violation of our guidelines. We also received customer complaints
about possible child pornography. We've asked the developer to put safeguards in place to prevent pornographic images and material in their app."
It is understood that the app can still be downloaded from Google's store. According to a Google spokesperson: "We don't comment on individual applications – however, you can check out our
policies for more information. We remove applications that violate our policies, such as apps that are illegal or that promote hate speech."
