According to a report yesterday, a Brazilian court judge ordered the likes of Apple, Google, and Microsoft to remove a set of apps from the app store, such as Secret and Cryptic. These apps are relatively innocent in nature and are basically social networks where users can post messages anonymously.
However due to Brazilian laws which apparently do not allow such anonymity, these apps were requested to be taken down. Well according to reports and as you can see in the screenshot above, Apple has since complied with the request of the judge and has since removed the Secret app from the Brazilian iTunes App Store.
Before you get up in arms about it, this is apparently in line with Apple’s own App Store Guidelines which reads, “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.”
However as you might recall, this is only one part to the judge’s request. The other request was to remove the app from smartphones in Brazil that might have downloaded it. Now Apple has the ability to remotely disable the app by revoking its certification, but to date there has not been a documented case where Apple has used that mechanism and it is unclear if this will mark it as the first.