Dash is an API document viewing application and can manage code snippets.
However, on the 6th of this month, Dash's developer Bogdan Popescu posted a blog post that Apple blocked his account and also removed Dash from iOS and macOS App Store.
Bogdan wrote in the blog post:Yesterday, I applied to Apple to upgrade my personal account to a company account. Apple said that it will notify me after verifying my company's DUNS Number, and iTunes Connect may not be available during this period.
But soon afterwards, my iTunes Connect account became unusable, and my application Dash was also removed. I think these are normal.
Then I continued to confirm the account verification process with them, and Apple still said that it would inform me immediately. However, just a few hours later, I received an email telling me that my account was suspected of being "false comments".
Then they also contacted me that they had found evidence. But I have never done anything like this.
Finally, I cannot change Apple's decision.
Bogdan updated his blog post on the 12th to explain the ins and outs of the matter more clearly.
Since I published the blog post last week, I have been in touch with Apple.
About 3 or 4 years ago, I used my credit card to open an Apple development account for my relatives and gave him some equipment that I didn't use. But in the eyes of Apple, these two accounts have already been linked, another account has a screen-washing behavior, and my account has also been closed.
On Friday, two days after my account was closed, I was totally unaware of this until Apple contacted me and told the associated account. I also did not make any manipulation of comments.
On Friday they told me if I could repost the blog post and said I did something bad. But I told them explicitly that I could not do this and I did not do anything wrong. On Saturday, they told me that if I can republish my post, I will restore my account. In the evening, I also sent a draft of Bowen to them.
But just tonight, they said through public relations they decided to sue me to manipulate the comments.
Apple also issued a statement:Faced with the inquiries of the well-known Apple product news site iMore , Apple said: “The Dash developer has two accounts, a total of 25 applications, and nearly 1,000 false evaluations. These evaluations include positive evaluation of their own applications and competitive applications. As a result of this, Apple only removed the developer account and all its applications. Before the removal of the application, we warned developers but it was not successful. This behavior hurts other developers and we will All customers and developers take responsibility."
An Apple spokesperson, Tom Neumayr, explained on the technology news site The Loop on a weekly basis: “A warning was issued before the account was terminated, and several attempts to communicate with the developer to solve the problem were not successful. We will score it for it. And the evaluation of fraud and intentional damage to the interests of other developers to terminate the developer's account." It is important to point out that this matter has been a long time, not Apple's momentary move when the issue last week. In fact, Apple had issued the first warning to the developer two years ago, but it has never changed.
In addition, the iMore website commented on this incident:Is this incident a small mistake?
The Apple team apparently did not think so, and the Apple app team contacted developers before and after the Dash app was removed.
Apple's anti-fraud team often conducts in-depth investigations for months or years. And will only take action after confirming the facts.
They also value this type of event because it is very important to maintain the fairness of Apple's applications.
Can this thing really only be done by Apple?
Apple is not a courtroom, and it is certainly not the case that the outcome of the matter will be determined by them.
Apple's staff is nothing more than ordinary humans sitting at their desks. Given that Apple “frequently†banned accounts and removed applications due to the development of user’s improper actions, there were few chances of being revealed and headlined. The biggest reason was that the error rate was really low. Similarly, if the application is often removed, then the requirements of the system may be very strict.
At the same time, however, developers will be given the opportunity to re-open their accounts, but it must be ensured that they will not commit again in order to continue to use the development account.
Why doesn't Apple make the review process transparent?
The biggest possibility is that Apple wants to negotiate with developers in private and does not want to disclose such events.
Back to the audit process itself, if you publish the audit criteria, I believe that you can not review the desired results.
Who should we believe?
At present, both parties have not come up with valid evidence. It is not yet possible to determine who is right or wrong. Lei Feng Network (search "Lei Feng Network" public concern) will continue to focus on follow-up reports.