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Apple dumps third party Reddit apps to force NSFW option removal

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By John McCarthy | Opinion Editor

April 12, 2016 | 3 min read

Apple has ditched several unofficial Reddit apps that contained NSFW buttons.

A week after Reddit finally launched its official iOS and Android apps, third party Reddit apps have been deleted from the App Store with seemingly little to no notice given to developers.

Popular Reddit readers, created in the absence of an official app, Narwhal, Baconreader, iAlien and Antenna have been pulled by Apple as a means of supressing access to pornography on its digital store.

Reddit admin /u/ggAlex said: “We were asked to update our apps (AB and Reddit Official) to remove the 'Safe for Work Browsing' toggle. This is a feature we previously refined with Apple's help. We were surprised by the notice.

“We just resubmitted our build. We were not informed that Apple would be removing other apps. We were very upset to see that they did. Honestly, if we were interested in getting rid of 3rd party apps (which we're not!!!), this would be the stupidest possible way to accomplish it.

“We suggest all 3rd party apps similarly remove settings for safe for work browsing.”

Some Reddit users complained about the enforcement arguing that the apps were a portal to the wider web, much like Google Chrome, Safari and more that have not been censored by Apple.

The developer of the Eggplant app complained that the removal of the NSFW button (which is activated by default) could throw up NSFW content during a casual browse of the Reddit. He argued this would either have NSFW out in the open on the app or blocking it all completely.

An Apple spokesperson said: “It is not appropriate to display pornographic content. It would be appropriate to remove the toggle and pornography present within the app.”

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