Apple App Store Investigation: Why Does It Ignore Comments on Illegal Information?

Many apps in the App Store are plagued by illegal reviews from black and gray industries.

"Whenever we find illegal information and comments flooding the screen, we will mobilize everyone to file a complaint. After the complaint, the complaints will be rejected, but a few days later another batch will come. This cycle continues, taking up a lot of energy."

The person in charge of an app ranked in the top ten in the news category of Apple's App Store told Sina Technology about his recent troubles. Ever since he began to promote his app, he has been caught in a relentless and protracted battle with the black industry to post comments, and every time he gave feedback to Apple through official channels, he never received any response.

The author found in the App Store that it is not just the news app mentioned above that is plagued by illegal information and comments. In more than 20 major categories such as shopping and music, the top ten apps in each category are almost "fully covered" by illegal information and comments, which deeply troubles the operators and users of the apps.

Developer: I worked hard on the product but couldn’t see any user reviews

"We file complaints to Apple's developer backend every time, but the problem is never solved. We can only organize our own forces and mobilize friends in the group to file complaints, but there are waves of complaints every one or two days," said Xiaonan, the person in charge of promoting a news app. He is very "tired" recently. He believes that Apple does not take this matter seriously at all. "Promoting gambling websites is clearly prohibited by the state, but Apple completely ignores it."

"It's hard to guard against it," said Xiao Lin, an insider of a real estate app. He also complained about the App Store. "There is too much information about the gray and black industries. We don't have enough manpower to stare at the screen all the time. Besides, we can only file complaints about a single review, which is a lot of work."

Kobayashi said that sometimes when he gave feedback to Apple, he would receive a response, but the content was always standard answers like "We already understand your problem", and it was impossible to determine whether it was Apple's algorithm that deleted the malicious comments or whether the complaint worked.

"We make products seriously, but many users cannot see the 5-star reviews, and instead see illegal advertisements. This is what we don't want to see," Kobayashi suggested. As a relatively major market, Apple should take corresponding measures against China's "down-to-earth" gray and black industry "play styles."

Sina Technology called Apple customer service as a user. After asking for the phone's IMEI code and phone name, the customer service gave suggestions such as restarting the device, restoring all phone settings, logging out of the account and logging back in, uninstalling related apps and reinstalling them. They said that they could not directly determine the cause and would record the problem in detail and provide feedback.

But when I asked whether they would call back, the customer service representative said that they did not have the authority to call back to inform the user of the solution, saying, "If the problem has not been solved, call again and report the case number, and our colleagues will be able to see what the problem was previously raised."

Such an "official reply" obviously cannot solve the problem. If users or app developers can solve the problem by simply restarting their phones and re-logging into their accounts, there won't be such a flood of illegal information and comments.

Legal experts: Apple App Store should actively fulfill its corresponding management obligations

Although user reviews are UGC content, Apple, as the App Store operation and review party, also needs to assume corresponding regulatory obligations.

Li Junhui, a special researcher at the Intellectual Property Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, told Sina Technology that in accordance with Article 47 of the "Cybersecurity Law", network operators should strengthen the management of information released by their users. If they find information that is prohibited from being released or transmitted by laws and administrative regulations, they should immediately stop transmitting the information, take measures such as elimination to prevent the spread of information, keep relevant records, and report to the relevant competent authorities.

Li Junhui said that as a special Internet service provider, the Apple App Store should also comply with various legal provisions, including the Cybersecurity Law, and should fulfill corresponding regulatory obligations for users who use its platform to post inappropriate information.

"In addition, when providing user review services to apps in app stores, app stores should also comply with the relevant requirements of the "Internet Post Comment Service Management Regulations." Li Junhui said that in accordance with Article 8 of the "Internet Post Comment Service Management Regulations," providers of post comment services should promptly take measures such as warnings, refusal to publish, deletion of information, restriction of functions, suspension of updates, and even closure of accounts for the publication of information content that violates laws, regulations, and relevant national regulations, and keep relevant records.

Li Junhui explained, "Simply put, for some users who use the App Store user review mechanism to publish illegal and criminal information, the Apple App Store should actively fulfill its corresponding management obligations."

Illegal gambling and other information reviews are rampant in the App Store. What penalties may Apple receive?

Li Junhui said that according to Article 68 of the "Cybersecurity Law", if a network operator violates Article 47 of this Law and fails to stop the transmission of information prohibited from being released or transmitted by laws and administrative regulations, take measures such as elimination, and preserve relevant records, the relevant competent department shall order it to correct the violation, give it a warning, and confiscate the illegal gains; if it refuses to correct the violation or the circumstances are serious, it shall be fined not less than RMB 100,000 yuan but not more than RMB 500,000 yuan, and may order it to suspend related business, suspend business for rectification, close the website, revoke the relevant business license or revoke the business license, and impose a fine of not less than RMB 10,000 yuan but not more than RMB 100,000 yuan on the directly responsible supervisor and other directly responsible persons.

Industry insiders: Apple lacks an audit mechanism

Compared with Apple, major Android app markets have not been flooded with illegal information advertisements, and developers also unanimously believe that Android manufacturers have better feedback channels and greater cleaning efforts.

Xiaonan revealed that contacting the Android manufacturer will get a timely response. Official staff said that if it is really irrelevant malicious negative reviews, you can collect evidence and then send a complaint email, and the manufacturer will do the corresponding review and processing.

"If you find malicious comments on an Android manufacturer's website, contact the manufacturer or the corresponding customer service and explain the problem clearly. They will resolve the issue very quickly. After one or two working days, the more negative or malicious comments can be deleted." Kobayashi also believes that Android manufacturers have a strong cleaning effort.

In addition, in Xiaolin's view, "Android manufacturers are generally more scattered, and none is as large as Apple. Gray and black industries are more inclined to do such actions on Apple."

Another industry insider gave a different explanation. "Since Android comment accounts are all real-name mobile phone numbers, while App Store comments only require an Apple ID, the cost of Android comments is higher than that of iOS, so Android comments are much better than Apple's. On the other hand, Apple lacks an audit mechanism and ignores developer feedback, which has also led to the proliferation of gray and black industries on the Apple platform."

Although the App Store cannot control user reviews, as the operating entity, Apple should provide developers and users with a correct and effective feedback channel. In the face of rampant illegal information, Apple should also do something and establish a corresponding review mechanism instead of always perfunctorily responding with "official replies."

As a problem that has existed for 3-4 years, why hasn't Apple solved it yet? Perhaps Apple should really reflect on the service and management system of the App Store, and give users and developers who operate apps seriously a clear app store as soon as possible.