Apple pulls iPhone program containing pictures of topless women

Apple pulls iPhone program containing pictures of topless women

Apple Inc. said it removed a program from its iPhone store yesterday because the developer added pictures of topless women, violating the company's policy against "offensive content."

"Apple will not distribute applications that contain inappropriate content," said Tom Neumayr, a spokesman for the company. "The developer of this application added inappropriate content directly from their server after the application had been approved and distributed, and after the developer had subsequently been asked to remove some offensive content."


The $2 program, called Hottest Girls, was created by Allen Leung. He didn't immediately return an e-mail seeking comment. His Web site no longer contains information about the application.

Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs announced the iPhone App Store in March 2008, saying the company would impose restrictions on the types of programs distributed. Prohibited programs include "porn, malicious apps, apps that invade your privacy," he said at the time.

The App Store, which opened in July 2008, offers more than 50,000 programs that run on the iPhone and Apple's iPod Touch media player. The company gets a 30 percent cut of each application sold and distributes free programs at no cost to developers. Customers have downloaded more than 1 billion programs in the past year, according to Apple.