Apple bans Unjected dating app over misinformation even as Tinder, Match, Bumble fall in line

Unjected, a new social media dating app, particularly for those who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 and have no desire to do so, has been banned by Apple from App Store. The reason for the ban on Unjected app is violation of Apple policies and for spreading misinformation on the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Unjected app was created and launched in May by two women for the “like minded, the covid unvaccinated”. Unjected says the app is a ‘safe space’ for unvaccinated Americans looking to date. While initially, the app was cleared by Apple, Unjected made certain updates that led to a ban being slapped on it. Apple clearly stated, that “if you attempt to cheat our system, your apps will be removed from the store.” However, even though Apple has banned it, the app is still available for download on the Google Play Store - Apple has a much more stringent safety and security review system. Unjected app downloads had shot up and it has almost 25,000 followers on its Instagram account,

Unjected app calls itself a “platform for like-minded humans that support medical autonomy”’ for the unvaccinated. It was developed as an app that took the opposite view of what the US government was saying on the pandemic and what it was encouraging other social media apps to do. The White House had told different dating apps - including Tinder, Match and Bumble - to prod users to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Unjected became a platform for the anti-vaxxers instead and was blasted by critics as a hotspot for Covid-19 misinformation.

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The threshold point for the platform was reached after Unjected added a new social feature that allowed more general postings. It was even flagged by Google after Unjected’s moderators were accused of not doing enough to stop misinformation on Covid-19 vaccines.

“Apparently, we’re considered ‘too much’ for sharing our medical autonomy and freedom of choice,” the developers said in a statement posted to Instagram on Saturday.

Unjected co-founder Shelby Thompson told Bloomberg, “We’ve had to walk a censorship tightrope.” Thompson maintains, however, that Apple is merely looking for an excuse to censor Unjected, and even says the removal “violates our constitutional rights.”

In order to ‘cheat the system’, the app encourages people to not use words such as “vaccine”, “jabbed” or “microchip,” and instead to use different placeholder words and phrases essentially to promote conspiracy theories that are widely labelled as 'misinformation' on Covid-19 vaccines. Among the various controversial postings on Unjected is a list of businesses that disagree with vaccine mandates.