No sooner did Twitter announce its latest video-sharing app Vine that some users have started sharing pornographic content on it. While Vine’s terms of service make no specific mention about disallowing sharing of sexually explicit material, the catch is that Apple’s App Store’s guidelines don’t welcome such stuff.
Users have already begun uploading videos featuring male genitalia and clips from porn videos on to the site, with the hashtags porn, sex and other similar words. Even though Twitter may believe in the freedom of expression, given how it has kept away from censoring tweets, Vine does have a provision for users to flag content they find offensive. According to a representative from the company, “Uploaded videos that are reported and determined to violate our guidelines will be removed from the site, and the user that posted the video may be terminated”.
The main question everyone’s asking is what impact it will have on the app’s success. Given how strict Apple is against allowing any apps with pornographic content on their App Store, how exactly does Twitter plan on meeting the App Store guidelines on Vine? The company was in the news recently for removing the app 500px because it reportedly let users search for and find naked bodies on its photo-sharing platform.
