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Apple Pulls App That Promoted Secret Parties During Ongoing Pandemic

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Apple has pulled an iOS app from the App Store that encouraged users to organize secret underground parties despite social distancing measures and U.S. pandemic restrictions, reports The Verge.

vybe-together.jpg

Called "Vybe Together," the app billed itself as a place to organize and attend secret parties, with its now-defunct website using the tagline "Get your rebel on. Get your party on."

App users could act as party organizers and approve other users who wanted to attend their event. Approved invitees then received the event address two hours before the party was due to start.

According to one of the developers contacted by The Verge, Vybe Together had a few thousand users and thousands more had requested access before Apple pulled it from the App Store. The app had also been promoted on TikTok before its account on the short-form video sharing platform was banned.

The ongoing health crisis has made indoor gatherings of people from different households an unsafe practice and in many regions such parties would be clear violations of pandemic restrictions, so it's unclear why Apple approved the app in the first place.

According to the report, the website's FAQ page acknowledged the danger of the pandemic, but said the app was designed to promote "small gatherings" rather than "large scale parties."

Whether the app led to many people holding the unsafe events is unclear, although it promoted "gatherings every weekend" on TikTok, including New Year's Eve parties.

The app had 25 ratings on the App Store before it was removed, and its Instagram page had under 1,000 followers. Before it was banned from the photo-sharing platform, Vybe Together's account had a single text post which read: "Blown out of proportion by the media. We DO NOT CONDONE LARGE GATHERINGS."

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple Pulls App That Promoted Secret Parties During Ongoing Pandemic
 
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https://www.macrumors.com/2020/12/30/apple-pulls-secret-party-app-pandemic/
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ArPe

ArPe

macrumors 65816
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-DMN- said:
Texas has been ALL THE WAY OPEN you should’ve seen the lake party’s over the summer. Commiefornia (TODAY) had there lockdown orders extended till mid-January. With cases surging. It’s almost like the science and numbers aren’t adding up.
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Texas also has surging infections and dying people. It’s not something to rejoice about unless you’re brainwashed with that extremist anti-science The Awakening nonsense.


The Awakening, sometimes hashtagged Great Awakening, for those who haven’t noticed it, is a religious revivalist movement that comes and goes in waves. Its followers call themselves ‘light workers’, ‘healers’ or ‘patriots’. The most recent version uses right wing talking points, conspiracy theories against science and tech companies, fear mongering about vaccines and 5G, and preys upon a mostly female stay at home audience such as single mothers, old women and bored celebrities. It will most likely inspire moments of home grown terrorism, such as attacks on 5G antennas and perhaps the suicide bomber in Nashville last week.

One of their strategies is to scream censorship despite the massive amount of misinformation they post online, fake being oppressed and then ask followers to subscribe to mailing lists. The emails are harvested and sold to scammers and ransomware threats are sent out to subscribers.
 
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FrankieTDouglas

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“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”​

 
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ArPe

ArPe

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FrankieTDouglas said:

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”​

Click to expand...

Those aren’t the type of crazy ones Apple was referring to. The Think Different advertizing campaign was about progressive people with helpful and constructive ideas. Not suicidal conspiracy theorists with an axe to grind against the modern world.
 
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VermontsFinest

VermontsFinest

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Sep 16, 2020
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-DMN- said:
Texas has been ALL THE WAY OPEN you should’ve seen the lake party’s over the summer. Commiefornia (TODAY) had there lockdown orders extended till mid-January. With cases surging. It’s almost like the science and numbers aren’t adding up.
Click to expand...
Wait if cases are surging and California extended their lockdown orders... doesn't that indicate science and numbers do add up?

Lots of cases + science = extend the lockdown to try and save some lives.

This whole pandemic has showed how when people aren't educated on a topic or don't understand how something works, they fall for conspiracy theories that end up putting people at risk.
 
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trainwrecka

trainwrecka

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ArPe said:
The emails are harvested and sold to scammers and ransomware threats are sent out to subscribers.
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The amount of spam mail on all fronts is out of control. I mark as junk, but it just keeps coming. I cannot imagine how many people give valuable information to these scammers?

I found out yesterday how much my grandfather buys from Facebook ads... oh man...

(Wasn’t really related to the topic, just vented after reading your blurb ?)
 
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IIGS User

IIGS User

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kingofwale said:
Did they closed apps used by BLM to organize protest during pandamic??
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I think there's a difference either way.

You have a right to assemble and peaceably petition the government for a redress of your grievances.

You don't have the right to rave and be a plague rat in the middle of a global pandemic for shiets and giggles.

Rights are not absolute. They come with responsibilities and are restricted in relationship to how they effect others individually or people as a whole. My rights are influenced by the known wider impact they will have on others.

Look, I'm the furthest thing you will find from a BLM cheerleader. I won't get into the weeds of it, as I believe it's off topic even for a "politics" thread and the discussion is way to nuanced for people typing at each other on the inter-webs.

But I think it's very easy to draw a bright line between people taking to the streets to address issues they have with the way they are governed Vs. Luke and Ashliegh deciding they don't like the 'Rona no more and they want to have 100+ of their closest friends over for an Amanda Hugandkiss party on new year's eve. Virus be damned.

I mean it's not like about the same number of people in the US have died from the virus (336,000) than in all the COMBINED US combat deaths since:

WWII 291,557
Korea 33,686
Vietnam 10,785

Total 336,028

Total combat deaths in the three combined conflicts 336,028. The last day statistics are available is 12/28/2020. 1,899 people died in a SINGLE DAY. ONE DAY. so we have certainly passed the 338,000 mark by now. Probably 340,000 buy the end of the week.

That with a new, more contagious strain running around. All ready hopping continents despite the best efforts to keep it at bay.

The two lack moral equivalence on multiple levels. I applaud Apple's actions in this instance.
 
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