Apple Cracks Down On Coronavirus Misinformation In The App Store

In the midst of the Coronavirus outbreak, platforms are vulnerable to be riddled with misinformation around the disease. To combat this, Apple is restricting developers not affiliated with recognised institutions and hospitals to publish apps around COVID-19.

According to CNBC, developers were blocked by the App Store from publishing apps with details like stats that showed a regional map of confirmed cases. One such developer took to Twitter to share screenshots of his app and the response he got from Apple for blocking the app.

From the screenshots, it is apparent that the app consisted of a dashboard compiling news related to coronavirus, general information and FAQs and a map that showed confirmed cases. The App store explained the rejection stating, “The seller and company associated with your app do not reflect a recognized institution such as government entity, the hospital, insurance company, non-governmental organisation, or university [...]”. The response cited section 5.2.1 of the App Store Guidelines that talks about intellectual property and misleading information.

An intervention is much needed for restricting the spread misinformation to not develop chaos. But this is not all. The outbreak can also be leveraged upon by the businesses. It is apparent from the surge in prices of masks and even ‘coronavirus merch’ on Amazon. The e-commerce giant is tackling the problem by banning products and sellers.
Now, Facebook is also doing the same, as revealed by a tweet from the Director of Product Management at Facebook, Rob Leathern. The social media platform is temporarily removing ads and listings for medical face masks to combat the commercial exploitation of the coronavirus outbreak.
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