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Vine's porn controversy: Twitter's video-sharing app comes under fire thanks to NSFW content

The days following the launch of Vine Twitter's video-sharing app for the iPhone, were embroiled in a controversy over porn. Following reports of the unsurprising abundance of pornographic Vines, the service accidentally promoted a NSFW video as an Editor's Pick. In the wake, Apple appears to have stopped promoting the popular new app, and Vine has already started to make searching for porn more difficult. Will Apple pull the app, or will this controversy blow over? Watch here for all the news as it develops.

  • Sam Byford

    Feb 6, 2013

    Sam Byford

    Vine changes age rating to 17+ after porn controversy

    vine 17+
    vine 17+

    Vine, the video-sharing app recently released by Twitter, now requires users to confirm that they are 17 or over. The move comes after Vine ran into a storm of controversy over adult content just after launch, with hardcore pornography showing up in the "editor's picks" section. Photo-sharing service 500px was also removed from the App Store over adult content fears before returning with a 17+ rating, and Tumblr followed suit by updating its iOS app to require a mature confirmation.

    The Vine update released today includes minor bug fixes, the ability to share to Facebook or Twitter after a video has been posted, and functionality for reporting or blocking users, but we've also found that the app now warns us about age-restricted material and forces us to confirm our age.

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  • Nathan Ingraham

    Jan 28, 2013

    Nathan Ingraham

    Vine begins censoring searches, weeds out #porn and more

    vine porn
    vine porn

    In the latest development in today's pornography on Vine saga, Twitter's video-sharing app now blocks many searches for pornographic terms. Trying to search for the #porn hashtag (and other terms such as #sex, #boobs, and #booty) brings up no results at this time. However, there are still numerous workarounds — #pornvine is still allowed, for example, as is #nsfw. Users can also still tag Vines with pornographic hashtags, and other users can simply tap on those tags to pull up a feed of videos just like the previous search would have done. However, what's important to note here is that it seems Vine has already begun the process of clearing out and hiding NSFW material — while they will likely never be able to completely rid the service of it, it sounds like it'll at least take a bit more work.

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  • Nathan Ingraham

    Jan 28, 2013

    Nathan Ingraham

    Apple stops promoting Vine in wake of porn controversy

    Vine for iPhone
    Vine for iPhone

    Twitter's video-sharing app Vine continues to find itself embroiled in a bit of a controversy — after exposing a clearly pornographic video in its Editor's Picks section earlier this morning, Apple has decided to hide the app from view as much as possible in the iTunes Store. As noted by Business Insider, Vine was previously highlighted as an Editor's Choice app pick as early as this morning, but that distinction has now been removed. Vine is no longer listed in Apple's "new and noteworthy" section either, and it isn't even highlighted in the "social networking" section of the App Store — despite the fact that it's the number one free social networking app and the number four overall free app as of this writing.

    Of course, Apple isn't saying if Vine's de-promotion is due to the recent porn scandal or if it is just part of the natural ebb and flow of the App Store — but it does feel like a quick reversal to us. There's no telling what Apple will do next, as there's certainly more than enough precedent for the company to yank the app altogether. That said, given its high-profile launch and backing by a major player like Twitter, Apple will likely tread carefully in any further dealings with the Vine.

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  • Nathan Ingraham

    Jan 28, 2013

    Nathan Ingraham

    Hardcore porn briefly climbs to the top of Vine's 'Editor's Picks,' Twitter blames it on 'human error'

    Vine Editor's Pick porn
    Vine Editor's Pick porn

    The launch of Twitter's video-sharing service Vine has brought with it another look at pornography on Apple's tightly-controlled iOS platform, and that scrutiny may be about to increase — the current top Editor's Pick when you open the Vine app is a pornographic clip. Since Editor's Picks are inserted into every Vine user's main feed, it seems this video is being pushed out to a huge number of Vine users. The video is hidden behind a NSFW filter and doesn't play automatically, but nonetheless it seems some users aren't exactly happy with having porn automatically inserted into their feed. We're reaching out to Twitter now to find out exactly how this happened, but it's clear that Apple will soon have to respond — if the company can justify pulling highly-regarded photo app 500px from the store due to pornographic concerns, Vine should represent a real issue for the company's porn police force.

    Update: Not surprisingly, the offending video has been removed from the Editor's Pick section, and no longer shows up at the top of users' feeds. We're still waiting to hear from Twitter about the issue and will update this post with any new information we receive.

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  • Joshua Topolsky

    Jan 27, 2013

    Joshua Topolsky

    Apple has a porn problem, and it's about to get worse

    vine porn
    vine porn

    On Sunday, a number of news outlets ran stories covering the rise of easily-accessible pornography on the new video sharing app Vine, causing a firestorm of debate online. The New York Times' Nick Bilton tweeted that pornographic material was discoverable thanks to simple hashtags such as #porn.

    But the truth is that Vine doesn't have a problem with porn, at least not one that isn't shared by any other social media app. Apple has a problem: its App Store's puritanical, unevenly-enforced policies for adult content. Vine is just today's example.

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