Apple App Store Selectively Targets Some Weed Apps

Last week, the mainstream media covered the rise and then subsequent fall of a popular weed app called “Weed Firm” which was billed as a Grand Theft Auto (GTA) style game. While we honestly don’t care for this kind of app, it’s kind of amazing that the app was ever approved, much less survived, long enough to make it to number one on the Apple App Store game charts. Tech Crunch says its popularity is what may have led to its demise, because when it comes to weed apps, the Apple app store doesn’t adhere to consistent guidelines, at all.

If they did, the app that Weedist recently submitted (screenshots below) would have been approved, but alas, it was rejected… on two occasions! And we still can’t figure out why.

According to Apple, the app we submitted — a Facebook Paper-like app that delivers the best content from the Weedist website — violated sections 2.18 (apps that encourage excessive consumption of alcohol or illegal substances, or encourage minors to consume alcohol or smoke cigarettes, will be rejected) and 22.1 (apps must comply with all legal requirements in any location where they are made available to users. It is the developer’s obligation to understand and conform to all local laws) of the Apple App Store Review Guidelines.

The note went on to detail the various infractions:

Regarding 2.18:

“[Y]our app promotes an inappropriate use of one or more controlled substances, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines. Your app contains references to recreational use of marijuana.”

Regarding 22.1:

“[Y]our app contains content – or facilitates, enables, or encourages an activity – that is not legal in all the locations in which the app is available, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines. We encourage you to review your app concept and evaluate whether you can incorporate different content and features that are in compliance with the Guidelines.

Wait, what? How can reporting on weed and the cannabis lifestyle be grounds for rejection when CNN, Huffington Post, The New York Times, The Washington Post and other news outlets also do the same? As weed and the question of legalization continues to gain popularity and legitimacy, so has the media attention surrounding these issues. Why are they allowed to cover the same weed-related topics we do without a rejection from Apple? Not only are they allowed to cover the exact same stories we do; but this week at the 2014 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) the Yahoo News Digest was selected as one of the Apple Design Award recipients despite the fact that they had two of the same cannabis stories that we did this week:

The short answer from Apple: “They cover other topics that are of general interest.” So if Weedist covered more general interest news like homicides, theft, rape and other things which are not legal, we would have a better chance of being approved?

Determined, we wrote a response detailing how our app didn’t violate the two clauses that were pointed out. Much to our surprise, we received a note that we would be called within the next three business days to discuss our app. Awesome! We could make our arguments to a real life person who would hear our reasonable arguments and reverse this incorrect decision!

Wrong. The call went pretty much as you would expect. We would ask for clarification as to how covering a topic like recreational marijuana was in any way either (a) breaking the law or (b) encouraging others to break the law much less (c) how our app encouraged excessive consumption of illegal substances (considering that we actually encourage the opposite: tolerance breaks) and the reviewer would reply without having to make any kind of logical argument to support his position.

We decided to take another approach. We asked the reviewer, what should we do to the app to ensure it would comply with their guidelines and get approved. Shockingly, we were told — in a very direct manner — just “remove the growing category” and resubmit. Okay. We restated the advice in the positive: “So if we remove the growing category, will our app be approved?” The answer was “Yes.”

That seemed awfully arbitrary, so we decided to test their theory, despite our inner grumblings. So, Weedist followed Apple’s advice and filtered all content related to the “growing” category. Then we resubmitted the app.

Not surprisingly, the second submission and review cycle went pretty much as the first one did. This time around, we were given different advice. “If you change the focus of your app to focus on the medical use of marijuana, that would be your best path forward,” said the representative.

WTF? How is that possible? Are the people reviewing Apple app store apps even aware of their own inventory? If they are, how did the NORML Blog App get the green light? Or the Weed Farmer Game app? Or the countless other apps that seemingly violate all the terms that our app was rejected on?

It’s not like the Apple app store isn’t chock full of cannabis-themed apps ranging from Weed Games, to Weed Maps, to Weed Recipe Apps:

Steve Jobs was open about his drug use. He smoked pot, took LSD and other narcotics. He saw it as a way to open his mind and experience the world in a different way. When he envisioned the Apple App Store, it was said that he wanted to ensure a high quality experience for his users. He wanted high quality apps that were free of “smut” and porn.

We doubt that if Steve Jobs were alive today and had a look at our app that he would have any issue with offering a high quality, well designed app that focused on delivering the best in news and lifestyle information to the cannabis connoisseur. Coming back to “Weed Firm”… How the heck did this ever get past the censors at Apple in the first place?