Apple Shuts Down Facebook’s Internal Apps Due to Flagrant Policy Violations

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Originally published at: https://tidbits.com/2019/01/30/apple-shuts-down-facebooks-internal-apps-due-to-flagrant-policy-violations/

After TechCrunch revealed that Facebook was flagrantly working around an App Store ban, Apple has taken the unusual step of revoking Facebook’s enterprise development certificates.

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They don’t say anything about whether the banishment is forever or temporary:

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As of right now, it’s permanent. Facebook is trying to negotiate with Apple, and we’ll see how that goes.

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And now Apple has revoked Google’s certificates too:

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My suspicion is that shutting down Google probably wasn’t Apple’s favourite option (hence the delay)—especially given Google’s rapid backdown yesterday. But
it seems like, from a PR standpoint, Apple more or less had to shut them down, once it became very public that they had been doing the same thing as Facebook.

I can’t help thinking that Google may decide to retaliate in some way, though.

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allen.gainsford
Allen Gainsford

    January 31

My suspicion is that shutting down Google probably wasn’t Apple’s favourite option (hence the delay)—especially given Google’s rapid backdown yesterday.

Google’s big annual contribution to Apple’s services revenue could be a reason why they banned Facebook first and made more noise about it:

Google to Pay Apple $12 Billion to Remain Safari’s Default Search Engine in 2019

http://fortune.com/2018/09/29/google-apple-safari-search-engine/

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it seems like, from a PR standpoint, Apple more or less had to shut them down, once it became very public that they had been doing the same thing as Facebook.

I can’t help thinking that Google may decide to retaliate in some way, though.

Currently, Facebook is facing much stronger head winds over privacy than Google. And Google would not be shelling out billions more than Microsoft did for Bing to be Safari’s default search engine. And they wouldn’t be paying billions more every year if it wasn’t benefiting their bottom line. And Google is also better at handling the press and partner relations than Facebook.

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Facebook has a new developer certificate and Apple and Google are working on getting Google a new one. Clearly Apple did the right thing: they revoked the certificates used by applications that broke the rules, and are allowing both companies to create new ones so that they can continue to do internal development that doesn’t break the rules.

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And now Google’s certificate is back:

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Apple also got a lot of excellent front page, above the fold, overwhelmingly positive publicity across the globe, the kind of positioning advertising $$$$$$$ can’t buy.