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Apple axes 500px app over pornographic images

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

January 23, 2013 | 2 min read

Apple has pulled its popular 500px app, which has been downloaded over a million times, following customer complaints over “possible child pornography”.

Apple said the app, which allows users to search for nude photography, was now a "clear violation" of its guidelines while Google has not yet removed the app from its app store.

500px said it had never received any complaints about such illegal content.

Although the exact nature of the images has not been revealed, a statement from Apple read: "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."

500px's chief operating officer Evgeny Tchebotarev told TechCrunch that: "We don't allow pornographic images.

"If something is purely pornographic, it's against our terms and it's deleted."

He stated that although there are nude images on the service, they were of a tasteful nature. Nudity is filtered by a "safe search" function which is turned on by default.

"It's not about pornography, it's about fine art," he added.

Meanwhile a Google spokesman told the BBC: "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."

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