HELLO! I saw your tumblr vs apple post and wanted to ask your opinion on some things
Section 230 has been mentioned with increasing frequency as of late (in the podcasts I listen to, and my newsfeed, anyway). CEO Tim Apple was interviewed by Kara Swisher a few months back, and in it he mentioned that he believes platforms (Apple, Facebook/Meta, Twitter, etc) have a responsibility to ensure that ābad contentā doesnāt find roots and is removed ASAP. Hereās the most relevant quote (because you know how CEOās talk in circles and any one point can only be understood when you listen to the whole speech). (I donāt know how to enter a line break without making the next bullet point start over at 1 again sorry so Iāll just paste this quote here) āWell, I can only speak for Apple. And from the very start, weāve always believed in curation. And so we review every app that goes on the store. That doesnāt mean that weāre perfect at doing it. Weāre not. But we care deeply about what weāre offering our users. And when we have a news product like Apple News, we have human editors that are selecting the key stories. And so, theyāre avoiding all of the misinformation that is out there. The reality is that the web in some areas has become a dark place. And without curation, you wind up with this firehose of things that I would not want to put into an amplifier.ā I can somewhat understand the point he makes about caring deeply over what they offer their users; and I know some people have said that this means Apple is āfamily friendlyā which comes with a host of problems re: queer kids, but tbh I think this āApple is just family friendlyā explanation is too simplistic; not that itās completely wrong, but itās definitely not even a fraction of the full picture. Do you think Apple is trying to get ahead of whatever reforms may be coming? And so theyāre proactively ācuratingā the content in the sub-platforms (tumblr, twitter, reddit) they have on their platform?
I donāt 100% agree with Epic. If I were a developer I think Iād also be pissed that I have to pay an annual $90 fee (IIRC) PLUS 15% to 30% depending on my revenue and the app/service category. I thought it was hilarious how you can pretty much superimpose Epicās behaviour with that of Meta (nee Facebook) re: the āweāre standing up for small <developers/businesses>ā. I think Tim Epic knows thatās bull. This is just one corporate billionaire fighting with another one. However. I am glad that Epic did what they did because it shed at least a little light on how disparaged some/most developers feel. I remember seeing ads on tiktok to download AR apps or ācartroonify your selfiesā but the second you open them it immediately prompts you to purchase some annual subscription. Hell, Grindr was scraping my clipboard upon opening and I only found out because of Universal Clipboard (when I posted it to the community forum, no one knew how to even answer- they just explain what Universal Clipboard is, but then apple cold called me a few days later (I stg I didnāt have my number on that account)). So Appleās strict app review process that theyāre propping up as a defence in this antitrust/sideloading debacle is total BS. All that said (and also noting that Epic went after Google as well?) do you believe Apple should allow more than one App Store? And do you think there should be a % cut that they take from developers, depending on the success of their apps re: in-app purchases. What are they actually giving back to the devs with these fees?? I initially thought it was the support documentation and really interesting videos they have but like you can literally access that for free with a developer account so??
What is tumblrās stance on adult content. Iām genuinely confused because circa 2017/18 they said ānah fam none of thatā in response to Appleās something. But itās been how long and the content still exists and more is being published as we speak. (āAs we speakā who do I think I am? š¤¦āāļø) I think, if memory serves, Apple updated their App Store guidelines in October 2021 and I think tumblr issued 6 updates since then before the āthis content is hidden you canāt do anything about itā update? And it makes sense now because I remember suddenly needing to flick a switch for reddit and twitter. What took tumblr so long to implement this button? Initially I thought itās because their TOS v clearly state āadult content isnāt okā. So a button to unhide adult content would be redundant since they dont want to host adult content in the first place. Right? Is it because itās extremely difficult to actually detect it and get rid of it? How do other platforms detect it so easily? A few years ago I posted a gif/vid to Insta and it was taken down within minutes (it was just two people under a blanket and there was an up and down motion, nothing actually visible, but damnnnnn). Is tumblr saying no to adult content to hopefully āwin favourā with Appleās sporadic and inconsistent App Review process? What can we the users do (other than switch to Android) to stick it to the Apple?
Why is tumblr contacting a āgraph.Facebook.comā domain. What does this mean? Apparently āThis domain may be following you across multiple apps and websites to combine your activity into a profile.ā I know you can turn on āAsk App Not To Trackā and Apple said that if Facebook the app does it anyway that theyāll be removed or something. But knowing how terrible their review process is, do you think theyāll even detect it?
Anyway, this is a huge question, sorry!
Thank you for reading ā¤ļø
There's a lot to go through here
1. I don't care to speculate on what Apple's plans are. If Apple wants to screen apps for malicious code, phishing, and CSAM, fine and understandable. Beyond that I think they're choosing to editorialize and push an agenda despite already having a ratings system in place to categorize apps with adult content. If they see shitty anti-SW legislation coming down the pipes and decide they better get a jump on licking the boots, fuck em.
2. Apple's a trillion dollar company, they don't need to charge that sort of cut to put up dev documentation. They should only take the cut if you use apple to process payments and subscriptions, and allow third-party payment processors as alternatives.
3. I'm not at Tumblr anymore and I don't have an answer those questions.
4. It might be cross-site tracking, or it might be fetching Facebook ads (facebook has an ad platform too). That dialog to accept/reject tracking doesn't stop tracking from occurring, it just removes any identifiable data about you from the tracking.





















