Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store

(www.theverge.com)

1704 points ardit33 | 4 comments | 13 Aug 20 19:03 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source

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lordleft ◴[13 Aug 20 20:04 UTC] No.24147974[source]▶

Imagine if Microsoft did this on PCs. a) prohibiting the installation of non-windows store software (sideloading) and b) insisting that all purchases done via apps give them a 30% cut. I think this is a ridiculous practice on the behalf of Apple.

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1. dexen ◴[13 Aug 20 21:28 UTC] No.24149542[source]▶

>>24147974 #

This is also a security vulnerability: one decision by Apple, or by a court of law in a far-away country, and an app is gone from your phone. You lose access to the data held by this app.

Easy, reliably DoS -- and the user has no means of fixing this vulnerability, other than rooting the phone and hacking around. Which is made ever less feasible.

replies(2): >>24150417 #>>24152279 #

2. tornato7 ◴[13 Aug 20 22:34 UTC] No.24150417[source]▶

>>24149542 (TP) #

In this case, was the Fortnight app removed from phones or was it just removed for new downloads from the app store? It sounds like the latter but the article is unclear.

replies(1): >>24150579 #

3. LordAtlas ◴[13 Aug 20 22:47 UTC] No.24150579[source]▶

>>24150417 #

The article actually is clear:

"As of right now, those who have already downloaded Fortnite on iOS are still able to access the game; only new downloads are disabled as a result of Apple pulling the game from the App Store."

4. tommymachine ◴[14 Aug 20 01:50 UTC] No.24152279[source]▶

>>24149542 (TP) #

You are confused. Apple never removes apps from users' devices simply because the new version did not pass review.

Removing an app from the App Store, and removing it from user's devices are two very different things. When any app is removed in this fashion, all users who already have the app still have access to everything they had access to before. The app just isn't listed on the App Store for new downloads.

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