Vine no longer 'Editor's Choice' on Apple App Store thanks to porn

Apple has quietly distanced itself from Twitter’s video app, Vine, following its pornographic content fiasco. The company is no longer featuring it in the ‘Editor’s Choice’ section of the App Store after a pornographic clip was featured on the app.

Although Apple has not made any comments about Vine’s struggles with the pornographic clips, this development may be a sign of things to come. The app launched less than a week ago and quickly made its way to the top of the App Store’s social charts in a matter of days. It is currently ranked among the top five free apps in the App Store.

The Twitter-powered app allows users to tweet small, six-second videos that play out on the micro-blogging site like a GIF image, albeit with sound. But unsurprisingly, mere days after its launch, pornographic content invaded the app, making it easy to discover sexually-explicit clips using hashtags.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

An app that allows you to share videos on the Internet should have seen this coming.

Vine’s problems multiplied when users found a pornographic clip among the featured clips in the app. This was probably the last straw for Apple, which promptly pulled it from the Featured section.

Twitter tried to douse the situation by pulling the video and calling it a ‘ human error’ that made Vine feature the pornographic clip. “A human error resulted in a video with adult content becoming one of the videos in Editor’s Picks, and upon realising this mistake we removed the video immediately. We apologise to our users for the error,” a spokesperson said.

The application itself remains available on the App Store, fuelling debate over whether Apple will pull Vine from its store completely. Apple has after all, removed apps like 500px for allowing users to search for nude pictures.

But one reason for Apple to be a little lenient in this case is Vine’s association with Twitter. The micro-blogging site has now become an integral part of the Apple ecosystem and it is clear that Apple wants to keep their relationship free of smudges.

While Vine’s Terms of Services do not expressly prohibit explicit content, it asks users to share videos responsibly. “You are responsible for your use of the Services, for any Content you post to the Services, and for any consequences thereof. The Content you submit, post, or display will be able to be viewed by other users of the Services and through third party services and websites. You should only provide Content that you are comfortable sharing with others under these Terms,” it reads.

Twitter, as it is wont to, has kept mum over censorship. It has asked users to flag inappropriate content whenever they come across it. After a certain number of reports, Twitter will put up a warning for everyone trying to view the video.

Currently only available for iOS devices, Vine will soon be making its foray into Android soon.