The former executive suggested that profit was a higher priority for the company than identifying and preventing cases of digital sexual abuse.

Why had Apple approved an app like Album Collection, which was a hotbed of digital sexual abuse? At one point, Album Collection ranked first in the App Store’s “Photos & Videos” category. Being listed in the App Store allowed more users to access Album Collection and thereby increased the number of people harmed.

Up to this point in my investigation, I had sent questions to Apple’s Japanese subsidiary multiple times. I had also directly emailed Apple’s CEO Tim Cook. However, I never received a response.

In search of answers, I visited the U.S. to interview Phillip Shoemaker, a former Apple executive who had led the App Store team.

Apple has not taken adequate measures to prevent harm caused by apps it offers.

For example, Apple cannot check the content being traded in apps in which users can upload content after installing the app, such as Album Collection. Although user reviews can provide clues as to problems in apps, Shoemaker stated that Apple largely ignores reviews too.

Our interview with Shoemaker can also be seen on video.

The numbers guy who made employees buy tea bags

Each app listing in the App Store contains a review section where users can rate and share their thoughts on the app. On Album Collection’s page, reviews pointed out that illegal images were being traded in the app. Users must enter a password to view images posted to Album Collection, and Apple cannot access the images. However, Apple could check the reviews.

“If there’s inappropriate content related to children or exploitation or anything — like pornography — objectionable, Apple should absolutely be looking at those,” Shoemaker said.

Why, then, was Apple ignoring user reviews?

“The reason why is probably all about cash, right? The App Store is a juggernaut that makes a lot of money for the company, but it also has to pay a lot of people to make it work,” Shoemaker theorized.

However, was Apple really a company only concerned with making money?

Apple founder Steve Jobs said the following in a commencement address to Stanford University graduates in 2005: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

Shoemaker mentioned Tim Cook, Apple’s current CEO and Jobs’ successor. He was the one I had contacted via email. Three days after my email, Album Collection was removed from the App Store; still, Cook never responded to my questions. (Brackets in the following have been added by Tansa.)

“Tim is all about numbers,” Shoemaker said.

“He is a numbers guy. And this is the same guy that, once he took over as CEO after Steve had passed, he started charging us — charging the Apple employees — for the apples that were readily available, that were always free. Suddenly they were being charged for the tea bags,” Shoemaker continued.

“So, to me, it’s not shocking that he hasn’t spent his time on this kind of stuff [preventing harm via the App Store] because it’s not gonna make him money.”

“I think Steve would be more interested in fixing it than Tim Cook,” he finished.

Phillip Shoemaker interviewed by Tansa and NHK. Photo taken on April 4, 2024 by journalists from the NHK Special “Innovative  Investigation.”

App developers “can come back in five minutes”

Shoemaker also pointed out that money was not the only issue: in the first place, Apple placed a low priority on checking reviews and preventing sexual abuse.

“That’s something that Apple could easily do if they just put their mind to it. Honestly, I don’t think it’s about money with Apple. I think in this case it’s just nobody’s forcing them to do that,” he said.

“It’s a lower priority. It’s probably on their priority list, but it’s probably at the very bottom.”

Apple’s failure to address digital sexual abuse is evident in a variety of other App Store mechanisms.

For example, one only needs an email address to register with the App Store as an app developer. Apple does not ask individual developers for proof of identity.

“Some of the other things that are going on in the App Store are developers come and go as they please under assumed names,” Shoemaker said.

“If you do something bad, Apple terminates your membership. You can come back in five minutes under a different name and do this over and over again. So you’ll also find that a lot of the developers that you see there are individuals,” he continued.

“They’re individuals for a variety of reasons. One is that it’s easier to become an individual and join the App Store than it is to create a corporation.”

That was the case for Album Collection, which was not represented in the App Store by Eclipse Incorporated but under William Leal’s name as an individual.

There is also no contact point for users to report or discuss problems with apps. According to Shoemaker, competition among apps in the App Store is so fierce that false reports may be filed to kick out rival apps.

“Ideally there’d be an 800 number, a toll-free number or at least a website, a place that you could easily click and say, ‘I want to report this app to Apple,’ but nothing like that exists,” Shoemaker said.

(Illustration by qnel)

The abandoned reporting form

What recourse, in the end, do victims have? Can they only watch as apps that trade their sexual images rise in the App Store’s popularity rankings?

“So how can people who have been harmed by apps published by Apple tell Apple about it?” I asked.

Shoemaker, who until then had answered our questions unreservedly, was stumped.

“Yeah, it’s… I don’t know,” he said.

“It [Apple] should take that [report of harm] as if it were true, and do some research and figure out if this is happening. And, if it is, remove the app from the store, contact the appropriate jurisdictional police, and get that matter resolved,” he continued. “But right now, that’s not being done. And it’s unfortunate because even here in the States, you know, we’re close to Cupertino. You just can’t reach out to them and get your problems addressed. It’s a very difficult web to try to find the right person to reach out to.”

Shoemaker said that during his tenure at Apple, he participated in discussions on how to add a reporting form, but the idea was never realized.

Shoemaker also suggested directly contacting the people in charge, writing articles highlighting the issue, and emailing CEO Tim Cook as ways to make Apple aware of the issue. But how many victims are able to do this?

“You’ve got to look at the beauty of the 98%”?

Toward the end of the interview, I asked if Apple had ever apologized to those who had been victimized through apps it offers. In January 2024, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to the families of victims of sexual exploitation during a U.S. congressional hearing. Platforms are beginning to be held accountable.

However, Shoemaker didn’t think Apple would do the same.

“I don’t recall Apple ever going out to victims of that and apologizing for what may have happened. I honestly don’t think that Apple probably sees that as their problem,” he said.

The same could be said of Shoemaker himself, who had been in charge of the App Store. He answered our questions frankly and in detail, but he did not mention his own responsibility.

Shoemaker also said that in “the App Store overall, … there’s like 2% of bad actors in the space, 1 to 2%. And so you’ve got to look at the beauty of the 98%.”

However, the number of people harmed by these 1-2% of ill-intentioned developers is enormous.

Some victims of sexual exploitation via app have taken their own lives.

To be continued.

(Originally published on August 1, 2024.)

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