Unjected is a dating and social application for anti-vaxxers. After breaking Apple’s policies, it’s since been banned from the App Store.
After breaking App Store guidelines for misinformation, Apple has banned the Unjected app that acted as a dating site for anti-vaxxers. Ever since the first COVID-19 vaccine was administered in December 2020, there’s been a global push to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible. Whether it be a Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson shot, the vaccines are proven to be safe and effective against the ongoing virus. Unfortunately, a growing number of individuals have taken a harsh stance against them.
While millions of people have received their vaccine since they were released, others have remained firmly in the opposite camp. There are claims that the shots have mind-control abilities, link people to ‘dangerous’ 5G towers, are can even turn people into magnets. The misinformation regarding vaccines has become rampant in just a few short months, resulting in a lot of distrust against something that can save people’s lives.
As if Facebook and Twitter aren’t already filled with COVID vaccine misinformation, a new application called ‘Unjected’ recently popped up as a dating site specifically for anti-vaxxers. According to Bloomberg, Unjected has dating features, chat rooms, Facebook-like social posts, and helps users find “unvaxxed friendly” businesses in their area. It’s essentially an echo chamber for false vaccine narratives, and it’s one that Apple has now banned from the App Store.
Apple’s Reason For Banning Unjected From The App Store
It’s reported that Unjected was denied from the App Store when it originally applied, but after making in-app changes to abide by Apple’s COVID-19 info policies, it was approved. However, Apple reversed that decision and banned Unjected — sighting that it “inappropriately refers to the COVID-19 pandemic in its concept or theme.” Speaking to Bloomberg, a spokesperson from Apple is is on record saying, “the developer has made statements externally to its users as well as updates to the app that once again bring it out of compliance.”
Reading through Apple’s App Store Review Guidelines, the company notes that it “strongly support[s] all points of view being represented on the App Store,” but will “reject apps for any content or behavior we [Apple] believe is over the line.” If a developer tries to cheat the system, Apple warns that their apps will be removed from the App Store and they’ll be kicked out of the Apple Developer Program. In the case of Unjected, it was breaking both of these rules. Users began sharing misleading posts about COVID vaccines acting as “bioweapons” and carrying “nano-technology microchips,” with the Unjected team doing nothing to remove these obviously false claims. Unjected even told its users not to use certain keywords when talking on the app — hoping to avoid detection by Apple.
The Unjected app remains on the Google Play Store at the time of publication, but that could change soon. Google warned Unjected about the misleading posts mentioned above, saying the app would be removed if these weren’t taken off. Unjected has since shut down the social feed portion of its Android app to comply with Google, but one of the founders says she plans to re-enable it and try to “stay under the radar” to avoid future detection from Google. It’s unclear how well that plan will actually work, but if Parler is an example to look at, it may not be too long before Unjected is booted from the Play Store as well.
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