Skip to main content

Apple removes Secret app from Brazilian App Store for not conforming with local laws

secret-brazil

Following a recent ruling that Apple would have ten days to remove the anonymous social app Secret from its Brazilian App Store, Apple has complied with the order. The justification for the removal, according to a source close to the situation, can be found in section 22.1 of the App Store Guidelines:

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

As noted by the judge, the Brazilian constitution prohibits anonymous freedom of expression, which essentially makes Secret and other apps like it illegal with that country.

Per Article 5, Section IV of the Constitution of Brazil:

IV. the expression of thought is free, and anonymity is forbidden;

There have not yet been any reports of the app being remotely disabled from users’ phones—a capability Apple has never exercised before—though doing so was part of the judge’s order. Whether Apple will comply with that half of the injunction is yet to be seen.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

  1. Marc Plus (@stakwild) - 10 years ago

    The app store remote killswitch list is at https://iphone-services.apple.com/clbl/unauthorizedApps and is still empty (it has never been used as far as I know). Not sure they could target a specific country with it anyway.

  2. Zac Hall - 10 years ago

    Wow, I read that this was going to happen a week ago on Secret. Secret strikes again.

  3. Sam Waterbury - 10 years ago

    Idiotic that “anonymous freedom of expression” is illegal in Brazil.

  4. Taste_of_Apple - 10 years ago

    I’m genuinely shocked they actually went through with this.

  5. Marcelo Henrique Almeida - 10 years ago

    I’m a lawyer from Brazil and actually anonymous freedom of speech in Brazil is not ilegal. What happened was a court order to ban the app temporaly because people were using to “share secrets” of other people and creating facts things about them. So the court ordered a temporary ban.
    The app didn’t break any of our laws. People did, so to avoid more demage the court decided for this solution.

  6. Gregory Wright - 10 years ago

    I suppose if the app is being use to abuse, harass, or defame a person the Brazilian law is appropriate.

  7. Dan (@danmdan) - 10 years ago

    Shame on you Apple for not standing up to the bullies ! This is just plain and simple censorship.

    • bvpmiranda - 10 years ago

      It’s not cencorship Dan, it’s accountability. You have the right to say whatever you want, but if it concerns me, I have to have the ability to hold you accountable for that.

      • Dan (@danmdan) - 10 years ago

        Yes – you have the right to sue me personally – but surely not the right to ban the entire Country from using the app. So what next – using the same argument one could ban Facebook, Twitter, etc. – and then where is free speech to have a voice.

    • ikir - 10 years ago

      No it is law. Maybe stupid law.

  8. Felipe Gobor (@lilgobor) - 10 years ago

    The main problem is, although the app allows users to complain and report posts as inappropriate, the complaint must be in english and it takes quite some time to posts to disappear. The majority of Brazilians can’t even say Hello.
    It is not the app itself, but the lack of support for this kind of thing.
    I do not agree with the ban (I don’t even use the app), but this is the only temporary solution to a bigger problem.

  9. Vito Rodrigues - 10 years ago

    “As noted by the judge, the Brazilian constitution prohibits anonymous freedom of expression, which essentially makes Secret and other apps like it illegal with that country.” Noooo, that’s not right! I’m Brazilian and i live in the state were the judge ordered this. The point was that the way of many people here were using Secret was offensive. A kind of cyberbullying, in my opinion. So that was “””necessary”””. Basically a way of educate the population. But i repeat: the Brazilian constitution DO NOT prohibits anonymous freedom of expression

  10. Douglas Gondim - 10 years ago

    I’m from brazil and the secret app wasn’t banned because it was breaking a local law. It was banned because people were using the app to bully other people by posting other’s secrets instead of their own.