Extremely strange and comical GIF rejections

Question

ziadz OP

Created Mar ’18

Replies 3

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Hey guys,

This is my first post, I just discovered Developer Forums - it's truly a godsend!

I just wanted to ask people's opinion on this very very strange and somewhat unfair rejection my team and I have faced:

One of our features in our app allows our users to message our support team directly through the app via the Intercom API. On the Intercome API messenger, users can send messages, images and GIFs. Here's the funny part; the guy reviewing our app decided to search 'pedobear' and said that this violated Apple Guidelines as it falls under Guideline 1.1 - Objectionable Content. We laughed for about 10 minutes before realising there's not much we can do.

We obviously can't do anything about this as we're using Intercom's API; we can't influence or change what GIFs come up. Intercom also said this was odd. The annoying part is you can find the exact same 'pedobear' GIFs on Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, GIPHY and pretty much anything else using GIFs, so it's pretty unfair.

Does anyone have any suggestions or has anyone experienced something similar? What do you guys advise?

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Answer 1

john daniel OP

Mar ’18

ziadz wrote:

Does anyone have any suggestions or has anyone experienced something similar? What do you guys advise?

Don't allow that?

Apple is very strict about apps that can be used to facilitiate illegal activity. Regardless of what 3rd party API you use, it is your responsibility to make sure your app can't be used in this manner.

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Answer 2

ziadz OP

Mar ’18

Hey John,

You're right and I agree, but how would we get around this? How come other apps have the same issue and are live? It's not really fair.

Thanks

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Answer 3

john daniel OP

Mar ’18

ziadz wrote:

how would we get around this? How come other apps have the same issue and are live? It's not really fair.

I'm not familiar with the Intercom API. I would be surprised if it handled everything. You probably have a text field in your app. You should be able to filter it for inappropriate content before sending the data to the API.

Other apps are irrelevent. Maybe they were approved before this new directive. Maybe you were unlucky enough to get that one reviewer who actually reads directives. Regardless, you are now in the database as having been rejected due to this clause. You will have to do extra work to make sure you are in compliance with this guideline. Apple is always going to check you for this because you have already had a reject.

It is not about being fair. It is about avoiding the attention of the FBI due to potential illegal activities.

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