Apple may have nudged Twitter into updating its new Vine app with a “17+” rating on the App Store due to salacious content, according to a report from AllThingsD.
Shortly after Vine first appeared in the App Store, porn videos began cropping up not only under relevant hashtags (#sex, #nsfw, #pornvine) but as editors’ picks forced to the top of uninterested users’ feeds. Vine failed to get a quick handle on its mature content, and despite Apple cutting Twitter some slack for this, Apple felt it had no choice but to push Twitter to brand the app with a high maturity rating, according to AllThingsD.
Twitter was reportedly reminded by Apple of a certain clause in the App Store guidelines that reads “Developers are responsible for assigning appropriate ratings to their apps. Inappropriate ratings may be changed by Apple.” If the app didn’t up its rating, that duty would be performed by Apple’s invisible hand.
Since image- and video-sharing services are popular with teens, the new rating could strike a blow to Vine's growth (though all that it takes to bypass that barrier is an “OK” in a dialogue box, if the user has the App Store account password). The (alleged) move on Apple’s part shows that, even for a popular app formerly endorsed front and center in the App Store, the company will still act swiftly to keep adult content behind the curtain.
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