{"id":1443,"date":"2013-02-07T18:30:11","date_gmt":"2013-02-07T18:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncjolt.org\/?p=1443"},"modified":"2020-06-04T20:54:03","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T20:54:03","slug":"rule-34-if-it-exists-it-has-porn-on-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/blogs\/rule-34-if-it-exists-it-has-porn-on-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Rule 34: \u201cIf It Exists, It Has Porn on It.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday, February 7, 2013 by Lauren Powers
\nSome of Apple\u2019s recent actions regarding apps on its App Store have called into question the role of various app store platforms in regulating web content.\u00a0 First, following Twitter\u2019s highly popular release of Vine<\/a>, an app designed to allow users to upload six-second looping video clips, risqu\u00e9 content<\/a> surfaced in the app\u2019s \u201cEditor\u2019s Picks\u201d section, causing Apple to quickly remove Vine<\/a> from its own \u201cEditor\u2019s Choice\u201d section in the App Store.\u00a0 Before the Vine incident Apple had already removed another app called 500px<\/a>, which was designed<\/a> to permit users to upload and share photos, because it too easily facilitated user access of pornographic and other sexually explicit images.\u00a0 Apple carefully polices its apps based on Steve Jobs\u2019 philosophy<\/a> of providing \u201c(f)reedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash your battery. Freedom from porn.\u201d<\/p>\n

The main issue with Apple and other platform\u2019s censorship of web content lies in the fact that private corporations have been given the power to determine what is and is not acceptable speech found on the Internet.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other app platforms like Google (Google Play<\/a>), Android, Microsoft, Blackberry, and Amazon are typically less strict about policing their app marketplaces than Apple but are still finding it necessary to exert some degree of control.\u00a0 For example, Google and Android allow apps from other platforms\u2019 stores to be loaded onto Google or Android devices.\u00a0 However, permitting that degree of flexibility can legitimately pose some of the problems that Steve Jobs recognized and chose to eliminate in his App Store.
\nThe main issue with Apple and other platform\u2019s censorship of web content lies in the fact that private corporations have been given the power to determine what is and is not acceptable speech found on the Internet.\u00a0 These corporations have acquired this control through the American dependence on mobile technology resulting from the rise in available smartphone options and the constant development of new apps.\u00a0 In fact, forty-five percent<\/a> of people in the United States reported owning a smart phone last year.\u00a0 Furthermore, over one hundred million people worldwide own an iPad<\/a>.\u00a0 Naturally, these statistics do not even include the large remaining portion of the population that uses tablets and other similar devices.\u00a0 Ultimately, these corporations have enacted their respective policies regarding inappropriate web content in a good faith effort<\/a> to protect their consumers from finding distasteful content through their apps.
\nHowever, the question is essentially a First Amendment<\/a> one as to whether people have a right to either accidentally or purposefully access offensive content on their mobile devices via these apps.\u00a0 To take it a step further, these corporations are asserting control over the First Amendment rights of both app developers and their consumers, a task typically best left to the federal government.\u00a0 While many consumers likely appreciate not being subjected to accidental discoveries of sexually explicit materials, others likely resent that they are not able to engage in such activities when the necessary apps are removed from a corporation\u2019s app store.\u00a0 Ultimately, while no major litigation has resulted from this striking battle between freedom of speech and freedom to be protected from speech, it seems that such litigation is not only likely in the future but rapidly approaching.
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday, February 7, 2013 by Lauren Powers Some of Apple\u2019s recent actions regarding apps on its App Store have called into question the role of various app store platforms in regulating web content.\u00a0 First, following Twitter\u2019s highly popular release of Vine, an app designed to allow users to upload six-second looping video clips, risqu\u00e9 content …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7631,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443\/revisions\/7631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}