Apple pulls ‘Wizz,’ a Tinder-like app for teens, over sextortion concerns
Apple pulled “Wizz,” a Tinder-like social media app growing in popularity among U.S. teens, this week over sextortion concerns.
Ben Goggin and Lora Kolodny for NBC NEWS:
Apple removed the app Tuesday after the National Center on Sexual Exploitation contacted the company with concerns about the alleged use of Wizz in sextortion scams, according to a series of emails reviewed by NBC News.
In an email from an Apple representative in response to the center, a representative wrote, “We take App Store violations seriously and appreciate your outreach. The app has been removed from the Store and we are in touch with the developer.”
In a public post Wednesday on X, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation thanked the stores for removing Wizz.
A Google spokesperson said that the Wizz app was suspended from Google Play, the online store for Android apps, on Tuesday. The spokesperson cited the company’s child endangerment policy that requires apps to “prohibit users from creating, uploading or distributing content that facilitates the exploitation or abuse of children.”
A Wizz spokesperson said in an emailed statement that “Apple and Google are seeking more information on our app, and we are working closely with their teams to clarify our platform’s extensive safeguards for users. We hope to resolve this matter soon.”
We are glad to THANK @AppStore and @GooglePlay for booting the Wizz app from their app stores after our outreach to them – this app connected children with strangers, leading to grooming and abuse. This step of social responsibility is vital for online safety!
— National Center on Sexual Exploitation (@NCOSE) January 31, 2024
MacDailyNews Take: One less societal cancer is a Good Thing.
All of these “social media” platforms are cancers on society. They are clearly eating society from the inside out. There’s something unsavory within human nature that “digital distance” amplifies to the point of disgust.
If you quit these cancers you will quickly realize what they are and what they do. You will be happier and healthier to have excised them from your life.
We haven’t had personal Twitter or Facebook accounts for many years now. And very happily so. — MacDailyNews, January 9, 2021
We use FaceBook as an RSS feed. Our CMS automatically reposts our article headlines and links them back to our website. That is our only interaction with Facebook and has been our only interaction with Facebook for years. We deleted our personal accounts [which we opened only so we could understand the Facebook phenomenon] many years ago.
If you want to share photos and videos with friends, text them using Apple’s end-to-end encrypted iMessage service. You need to control your social networking, not cede it to a gatekeeper… – MacDailyNews, March 19, 2018
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