Apple is “deeply concerned” with the arrival of the first known porn app, called Hot Tub, for the iPhone in EU markets through AltStore PAL’s alternative iOS app marketplace that became available in the region because of Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Hot Tub is being marketed as an “adult content browser”. Apple bans “overtly sexual or pornographic material” on its own iOS store. The company’s co-founder, the late Steve Jobs, once replied to a customer query (from one Matthew Browing) about App Store policing, saying that his company has “a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone”. Since the App Store launched in 2008, Apple has prevented apps explicitly for distributing pornography from being listed.
DMA allows app developers to release iPhone and iPad apps through alternative marketplaces in the EU. Such marketplaces can make decisions about the types of apps they’ll allow, including those that don’t align with Apple’s App Store Guidelines.
“We are deeply concerned about the safety risks that hardcore porn apps of this type create for EU users, especially kids. This app and others like it will undermine consumer trust and confidence in our ecosystem that we have worked for more than a decade to make the best in the world,” said an Apple spokesperson in a statement.
Apple doesn’t “approve of this app” and “would never offer it” in its official App Store.