Anti-vaxx dating app ‘Unjected’ booted out from Apple app store

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Apple said that it removed a dating app called ‘Unjected’ following violations in relation to COVID-19 health information.
• Unjected was reportedly a platform for unvaccinated individuals.
• The app was working on how to get back on the App store.

Apple removed a dating-and-community app for unvaccinated people in its apple store on Saturday over ‘improper’ principles about the COVID-19 pandemic.

In response, Unjected founder Shelby Thomson shared his thoughts on Instagram shortly after: 

“Apparently, we’re considered ‘too much’ for sharing our medical autonomy and freedom of choice… So, of course, Apple removed us,” he said.

Speaking with Insider on Saturday, an Apple representative said that the app breached the company’s policy on COVID-19. In previously released interviews of the app’s founders, they said that their app was catering to “like-minded unvaccinated individuals.”

Apple said that it previously rejected the app from the App Store, but it got reinstalled following updates.

According to the tech giant, the Unjected founders asked their users to avoid using anti-vaccination terms such as “microchip” and “jabbed.” The Apple spokesperson also noted that with such trickery, the app had again violated the company’s policies.

In another response to their dismissal on the App store, Unjected shared a screenshot from Bloomberg News, which reported the incident on Saturday. The screenshot had a caption: “We must use our voices. We are fighting the censorship of our freedoms and we won’t stop.”

The Apple representative said the company’s policies mandate that health and safety information about COVID-19 should emanate from well-known and credible sources such as governments, companies and non-governmental organizations.

In a bid to remain available on the App Store, Unjected announced via Instagram that it omitted some of its features like the social feed and ‘blood bank.’

“We are looking into ways to get off of Apple and Google,” it said. “But the easiest transition for us might be to make the website as great as possible since they can’t shut that down like the app.”

“We have an appeal to Apple — however we don’t expect they will even return our request,” Thomson said.

Meanwhile, the app was still active on the Google Play Store. Several users gave it second-rate reviews.

Unjected was launched in May and started as a simple dating app. Over the recent months, it included new features. Thomson shared with Insider that the app had around 18,000 downloads.

Source: Business Insider