Apple Pulls Dating App for Unvaccinated People
Contributed by: kellyseal on Saturday, August 21 2021 @ 07:16 am
Last modified on Saturday, August 21 2021 @ 07:25 am
Apple has pulled a new dating app for unvaccinated people from its store, stating that the app was spreading misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines.
According to PC Magazine[*1] , the app “Unjected” was initially reported to Apple by Bloomberg, who contacted the company when the dating app added a new social feature where users could publish their own posts. Many Unjected users began to add content containing conspiracy theories and misinformation about the pandemic and vaccines. This violated app store rules, which bans entertainment and gaming apps from using Covid-19 as a theme.
Apple told PC Magazine that Unjected broke other app store rules, too, namely by telling its users to avoid certain Covid-related words like “vaccine,” “jabbed,” and “microchip” because this might lead to the app being flagged and potentially banned from the store, which eventually it was.
Apple has also been trying to curb the spread of misinformation by ensuring apps available in its store that refer to the pandemic only cite credible sources when they do.
Unjected was intended to match “like-minded” people, or those refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine, but soon it became a platform for elevating discredited information about the pandemic – not just from its users, but the company itself. The app claimed on its platform that the vaccines can be dangerous, despite mountains of evidence from health and infectious disease experts, as well as successful clinical trials and real-world proof showing that the vaccines are both safe and effective.
The spread of misinformation has created a new wave of problems in the U.S. and other countries, causing people to resist getting vaccinated. Health experts have said the substantial percentage of unvaccinated people has led to the rise of a new and more contagious and deadly delta variant. Unvaccinated people are starting to fill up hospitals again, creating another pandemic surge.
The app developers took to Instagram to complain about Unjected being removed from the Apple store, but later it was also removed from the social platform for similar reasons. The app is still available from Google Play, but the Android version doesn’t have the social feed on it due to Google’s misinformation policies.
Interestingly, users of the app aren’t that smitten with it, either. A few commentors said they weren’t able to log in, and others complained about how the design of the app is confusing.
Unjected emailed PC Magazine saying that Apple was infringing on its first amendment rights, but as the news site pointed out, first amendment rights apply to individuals, not companies who can set their own rules.