![]() ![]() Since the review process chooses a random reviewer, the review experience is random every time. Since the review process is human, some reviewers interpret the guidelines more strict that others. Of course, the bigger picture is Apple’s adult content policies, but the relationship between reviewer, developer support, and policymakers is completely fucking discordant. This process, I believe, is where the problem lies. Usually when it got there, the contact would look at the report and say “oh, yeah, that’s not porn” and tell us to re-submit the app again. In this case, the appeal gets bumped up to a developer support contact that would manage the appeal. In these cases, Tumblr would appeal the rejection, saying the content doesn’t violate our policies (and to the best of our knowledge, Apple’s) so we won’t remove it. Something you’d see in like, a laser hair removal ad. I’m talking stuff like a woman in a bikini. Sometimes, however, Tumblr would get a reviewer who flags tumblr for porn, and when Tumblr opened the rejection notice, the screenshot would be something completely not porn. It would take a handful of porn scrubs and re-submissions before they’d finally green-light an update. Once in a while Tumblr would get a really persistent reviewer. Tumblr staff would remove the porn, resubmit, the reviewer would find nothing, then approve the app. A reviewer would find porn, and respond by sending us the steps they followed to find it and a screenshot of the content. I’d say once every 5 updates (every time Tumblr updates the iOS app, they have to re-submit the app for review). Sometimes they would search something completely innocent and find porn anyways. Sometimes they would search something more innocuous like 'socks’ (yeah, i know) and find porn. In the case of Tumblr, this would be a reviewer going to search, typing in something like 'tits’ and finding porn. If a reviewer runs your app and finds porn, your app is rejected and you’re told to correct the problem. Now, there’s a laundry list of things in those guidelines, but we’re going to focus on adult content because that’s the most relevant. The review process used to be long, sometimes it would take weeks, but in recent years they’ve got it down to about 24 hours. These guidelines are judged by a human being assigned to your app during the review process. Apple’s standards are 1) non-malicious, functioning programs, and 2) programs that adhere to the App Store’s review guidelines that cannot be asserted in the same way a program can. You compile an app and submit it to the app store, and it proceeds through an automated and manual process to review your app to ensure it meets Apple’s standards. What happens when you submit an App to the App Store? I think these are the 3 things that shape their policy decisions, in order. Finally, there’s lawmakers and policy that influence them as well. After that, they’re beholden to payment processors wanting to distance themselves from porn. Apple’s power to set content policy over apps is absolutely fueled first and foremost by internal policy that goes back to Steve Jobs. Let me be clear about this from the get-go: I think Apple’s censorship policies are wrong and they have no grounds to be policing adult content within apps on the app store. What I can do is give you a peek into how the Apple App Store review process works, so you have an idea of the hell that Tumblr staff is dealing with right now. The banned word list is absolutely perplexing and I can only theorize why tags like ‘long post’ are banned from appearing on iOS. Though I keep in touch with current staff at Tumblr (what little that are left that I know) I do not have picture of what’s going on internally. If you don’t know already, I used to work at Tumblr as an iOS engineer. ![]() Alright let’s talk about Apple and Tumblr’s current predicament. ![]()
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