Apple has refused to remove negative ratings in its App Store for the Facebook app left by pro-Palestinian activists upset over censorship on the platform.
Business Insider reports that tech giant Apple has refused a request from the social media firm Facebook to remove negative ratings for the Facebook app in the Apple App Store after pro-Palestinian protestors coordinate an effort to hurt Facebook’s app rating due to alleged censorship of Palestinian content.
The Facebook app had a 2.3 out of five-star rating on Apple’s App Store as of Friday compared to more than four stars earlier in the week. Many of the one-star reviews stated that their rating was due to Facebook allegedly censoring hashtags such as #FreePalestine or #GazaUnderAttack.
One senior software engineer in a post on Facebook’s internal message board reportedly stated: “User trust is dropping considerably with the recent escalations between Israel and Palestine. Our users are upset with our handling of the situation. Users are feeling that they are being censored, getting limited distribution, and ultimately silenced. As a result, our users have started protesting by leaving 1 star reviews.”
An internal message shows that Facebook was very concerned by the coordinated effort to affect the app’s ratings, categorizing the issue as a “SEV1” which stands for “severity 1.”
Facebook reportedly contacted Apple to have the reviews removed and Apple denied the request. Apple and Facebook have had a contentious relationship ever since Apple introduced a new app tracking transparency feature that alerts users if an app — such as Facebook — is tracking their behavior.
According to the latest data from analytics firm Flurry, only 4 percent of U.S.-based iPhone users have chosen to enable app tracking in the new iOS update which would allow apps to collect user’s data.
Flurry’s data is based on a sampling of 2.5 million daily active users. When examining mobile users worldwide who allow app tracking, the number of users that have allowed apps to collect their data sies to 12 percent of users out of a 5.3 million user sample size.
Read more at Business Insider here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com
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