- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
Apple has withdrawn an app created by Andrew Tate after accusations that it encouraged misogyny and could be an illegal pyramid scheme.
Tate created the app, Real World Portal, after the closure of his “Hustler’s University”, which was an online academy for his fans, promising to assist them in making thousands of pounds while helping Tate’s videos on social media, which have been described as misogynistic, to go viral.
McCue Jury & Partners, the firm representing four British women who have accused Tate of sexual and physical assault, claimed that the app deliberately targets young men and encourages misogyny, including members of the app sharing techniques on how to control and exploit women. The firm has also claimed that there is evidence to suggest that the app is an illegal pyramid scheme, with members being charged $49.99 a month to join.
Last week, the Real World Portal app was removed from Google’s Play store after claims that it was an illegal pyramid scheme and encouraged misogyny.
On Friday night Apple also said it had removed it from its app store. It followed a letter from the legal firm asking Apple to consider whether the app was in line with its policies and whether the company was exposing itself to any corporate liability in hosting it on its platform.
Part of the letter, dated 15 September, said: “We are writing because our clients are extremely concerned that you are hosting Tate’s Real World Portal (RWP) mobile application on your Apple Store … In continuing to host RWP, not only is Apple potentially indirectly financing Tate’s alleged criminal activities but is aiding the spread of his misogynistic teachings.”
The firm had claimed that Apple was directly profiting from hosting the app, with the company taking 30% in royalties from apps and in-app purchases.
Four women in their late 20s and early 30s are pursuing civil proceedings against Tate over alleged offences between 2013 and 2016 while he was still living in the UK.
Before the news that Apple had withdrawn the app, Matt Jury, the lawyer representing the women, said: “Andrew and [his brother] Tristan Tate manipulate their significant online following to promote subscriptions to Real World Portal. From there, the benefits to users are entirely reliant upon new subscribers joining the platform.
“There is also significant evidence that this scheme is directly targeting boys and teenagers and, in my view, is nothing more than an exploitative app which has no place on Apple’s platform.”
Tate is awaiting trial in Romania on charges of human trafficking. He and Tristan were charged in June, along with two Romanian female suspects, with human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. The suspects have denied the allegations.
A spokesperson for Andrew Tate said: “We unequivocally deny the allegations that ‘The Real World’ app operates as a pyramid scheme or perpetuates harmful techniques aimed at exploiting any individuals, particularly women. The user community, which includes a significant number of women within the 200,000-strong user base, can attest to the positive impact and educational value the app provides.
“Accusations suggesting otherwise are unfounded, lacking credible evidence, and seem to be part of a targeted campaign against Andrew Tate, a known supporter and promoter of the platform. ‘The Real World’ maintains a commitment to complete transparency, ensuring compliance with all legal and ethical standards. We invite sceptics to examine the app independently and affirm that it operates in accordance with legal and moral requirements.
“The platform is designed as an educational tool that fosters healthy habit formation, financial literacy, and self-discipline, with thousands of lives positively impacted. The decision by Google Play is being appealed.”
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yes, immurement does seem like adequate punishment for his kind
It’s really confusing how people view this twee whiny bully as ‘manly’
Ohhhhh god I was on a plane recently and a young couple sat down next to me. I wasn’t tuned in for their whole conversation but at one point I heard her chiding him for how he gets emotional when he’s upset.
She busted out her phone and showed him an Andrew Tate clip where he says something about how no one wants to hear your complaints so don’t waste your time with them, just be a man and be stoic. He used the word stoic.
The young guy shrugged and said “what does he know?”
She said “you’re going to tell me that one of the strongest men in the world, with all his insight, says this and you’re going to just ignore it?”
I snorted out loud, unable to catch myself. Thankfully they didn’t notice.
I’ve never heard him speak but every time I see him he looks like an egg with a vagina stuck to it so I assume he sounds like something out of a Dali-esque Alice in Wonderland
Pretty much. He sometimes speaks with an American accent and other times a British accent, going back and forth at random which makes the British accent seem forced.
To be fair, he grew up in both the US and the UK. His mom is British, and he lived in the US until he was about 12, 13, then moved to the UK. Him having a very confused accent makes sense.
There, that’s the only time you’ll ever see me defending anything about that raging douche canoe.
What needs to be done is have countries block payments to this service. You could sideload this on Android, not sure about apple. But block the money.
Doesn’t he have a twitter account?
He has a Twitter owner too
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Last week, the Real World Portal app was removed from Google’s Play store after claims that it was an illegal pyramid scheme and encouraged misogyny.
Before the news that Apple had withdrawn the app, Matt Jury, the lawyer representing the women, said: “Andrew and [his brother] Tristan Tate manipulate their significant online following to promote subscriptions to Real World Portal.
He and Tristan were charged in June, along with two Romanian female suspects, with human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.
A spokesperson for Andrew Tate said: “We unequivocally deny the allegations that ‘The Real World’ app operates as a pyramid scheme or perpetuates harmful techniques aimed at exploiting any individuals, particularly women.
“Accusations suggesting otherwise are unfounded, lacking credible evidence, and seem to be part of a targeted campaign against Andrew Tate, a known supporter and promoter of the platform.
“The platform is designed as an educational tool that fosters healthy habit formation, financial literacy, and self-discipline, with thousands of lives positively impacted.
The original article contains 611 words, the summary contains 169 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I thought he was still in jail
He can stay at home atm, but he’ll be judged and jailed soon
You spelled “pay bribes and walk free” wrong. Tate set up shop in one of the most corrupt countries in the world for a reason.
Yeah, but then he laughed at their corruption, humiliating the country on a international scale. He will be made an example of.
And he got his ass handed to him in no time.
Corrupt or not, he’s going down. That he’s “free” right now isnonyo because in Europe you can’t be jailed indefinitely until your trial starts. He’s out becaut they’re still working in the investigation, it looks like there quite thorough. I fully expect him to disappear for multiple years
Actualized.org is less of a scam in comparison to this joker
Time to post another video in a shadowy room full of leather and stank. Better pop that shirt off.
I can’t believe that people still idolize this rapist and sex trafficker.
Tate is a programmer?
He hired some. You can pay People to do it.
Sounds like these guys should be looking at progressive web apps, if their being de-platformed from the app stores, PWAs are the only way to go. App stores cannot block progressive web apps, unless they remove the browser from the phone. So if you have a web browser you can use a PWA
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_web_app
Not to mention it saves on development time, you just build a good progressive web app and it works on all platforms.
For people who don’t have experience with progressive web apps, Voyager the Lemmy client is a progressive web app. You visit it in a browser, and you can install the app locally from the browser itself. So the app runs in the browser locally. They’re pretty cool.
Why would you support / advise these fukn ahats?
I didn’t care about deplatforming until Elon banned me on Twitter for dunking on him
Can’t say I’m surprised, he can be a reactionary douche.
I don’t support them at all. I don’t believe in their cause. I don’t believe in their messaging.
Philosophically I’m against all de-platforming, and I’m pointing out that if you want to prevent yourself from being deplatformed, you have to liberate yourself from app stores which have strong opinions.
So I will provide deplatforming advice to anyone, for any reason, because I believe everyone should have a voice.
On a practical level, it’s the detestable people who demonstrate de-platforming the most often, so we get practical examples with the evil people. Today it’s the misogynistic sociopaths, but tomorrow it could be de-platforming of end-to-end encryption in the UK and removal from all the app stores. My comments would remain just as relevant.
Racists, sexists and homophobes do not deserve a platform from which they can continue to spew their vitriol.
I respectfully disagree, if we think speech is a human right, it has to be for everyone, or it’s for no one.
Let’s not forget each one of the classes (ethnic minorities, women’s liberation, non cis sexual identities) you mentioned in your post, started off as a censored minority in society, and it’s taken time, and open platforms for their message to get out there and normalize. If we create tools, and normalize silencing people in the minority, it’ll be hard for the next minority group to gain their equality in society. Or at least it will slow it down massively
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That isn’t what was said, but what you inferred.
I’m not saying their causes of equal merit, but I am saying women’s liberation started as a minority position in society, heavily censored, not provided a platform to speak on. They were extremely unpopular.
By creating open platforms, that anyone can use, we don’t have to rely on the people in power allowing voices to be heard. People’s voices can participate, and survive by their own merits.
Every struggle in society, with a equality especially, starts with secret message passing, secret organization, finding a voice. We need to keep the pathways open so that repressed people can have a voice. Unfortunately that means opinions we don’t agree with, as well as opinions we do agree with.
those are not opinions this is highly predatory behavior and indoctrination of a lowlife which wants to make money with a scheme and by abusing women.
those people don’t need a platform.
I respectfully disagree, if we think speech is a human right, it has to be for everyone, or it’s for no one.
This is where everyone gets it wrong. Can you say anything you want? Sure, I suppose so. But there are CONSEQUENCES for what you say. One of those consequences is that a particular bit of speech is frowned upon at best, and made illegal at worst. It would be totally fine to yell “Bomb,” on an airplane if there was never a bomb on an airplane, and never would be. But there has been, and there probably will be again, so you can’t yell that without CONSEQUENCES. The consequences that these asshats are facing for their particular brand of bullshit is that they are being silenced, because they should not be saying the things that they are. Plain and simple. Is speech a right? Sure, until it’s abused, and then the rights of the many override the right to speech of the few.
I agree with you, and in your examples I would expect the consequences to come from the judiciary after following due process publicly.
I would not expect the gas company, the electrical company, the water company to turn off utilities for the person who yelled bomb on an airplane. I would expect a court to hand down a decision to rectify that situation.
For our erstwhile plane enthusiast, I would expect them to still get basic utilities even though they’re unpopular. And I would defend their right to have water power and gas Even though they’re a social pariah.
Because Apple, and Google are guardians of the public square on phones, which is how most people use the internet anyway, I think it’s reasonable to point out that progressive web apps are way to survive deplatforming for any organization.
No one has a right to make an app, let alone have that app published by a third party company that has a responsibility to their shareholders, the public, and the government. By your definition, CSAM should be allowed on the app store until a judge orders it to be taken down… That’s not how the internet works, and you know it. The internet is about moderation–self, and imposed. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Reddit, Lemmy, and millions of others must rely on self moderation first, and then impose moderation if that fails. Then, and only then, when moderation at the app/website level fails, do these go to court to get at the root of the problem. I’m sorry that you feel moderation infringes on your right to free speech, but seriously, you have the most paper thin arguments for it.
I respectfully disagree, if we think speech is a human right, it has to be for everyone, or it’s for no one.
Let’s say you own a cafe with an open mic night. One day, someone comes in to the open mic night and starts yelling racist slogans and repeating Nazi rhetoric.
You can let them continue because you’re a free speech absolutist, and lose your customers, or you can kick him out.
There is no difference between this and what Apple or YouTube does except for scale.
I agree with you. And I’m not saying Apple, or YouTube or wrong for deplatforming them.
I am pointing out people in this position can take advantage of an open internet to still have a platform for their voice that does not rely on gatekeepers.
So in your example, I kick them out of my club, and they decide to open their own club. That’s their business not my business. That would be the end of my interaction with them
Ok, so Andrew Tate can open his own app store. Problem solved.
Ok, I’ll try to explain the issue with that. Do I have the right to pay someone to kill you? No. Then there’s already a limitation on my speech AND use of private property. How can we reconcile that with free speech? By thinking about why free speech or any human rights matters. I could go on a dissertation here, but I’ll skip what is easy to find online anyway and jump to the conclusion: human rights are positive rights that are intended to protect human dignity (in the philosophical sense of the indivisible and equal worth of all human life), so it follows that free speech only applies to speech that doesn’t go against that goal. If you don’t do this exercise you end up with the Paradox of Tolerance and all human rights crumble like a house of cards.
Right, and in society we have more or less agreed that the people who can exclude somebody’s speech, or make speech disappear, is the judiciary following due process. Private companies are not the judiciary.
So if a court puts a gag order on this organization saying they can’t have an internet presence, that’s fine.
In your example, hiring a hitman against me, I would expect a court to enact protection order, and perhaps even a gag order on yourself. Then I would expect platforms online to honor that gag order if you were to post anyway.
If a private company, took it upon themselves to deplatform you without a court order, I would disagree with thatz even though your speech is against me. I hold this principle very highly, even when it’s against my own individual personal interests, because I want a stable society more than anything else.
A stable society is not one where you can go to all of your neighbors and tell them a random person is a pedophile in order to start a mob in the name of free speech.
A stable society is not one where you can walk into a Walmart and start yelling the N-word but not get kicked out in the name of free speech.
A stable society is not one where you can sexually harass a co-worker without repercussions in the name of free speech.
You don’t want a stable society, you want chaos.
Private company’s policy isn’t dictated by anything but what can make them more money, which is by and large public opinion.
Public opinion is that this guy and his ilk are cunts and don’t deserve a platform.
Where your argument falls apart in the internet age, public policy or private policy, is that it’s so easy for this ooze, this tar, this black filth to fill into dark crevasses, one’s you don’t think of, don’t imagine, because they are naturally borne of their time. We don’t have time to even make public policy before they happen and become problems.
We have things like incel communities because these people feel lost, and have banded together to feel some sort of connection because of their joint feelings, but these feelings have a negative direction that leads to them being deeply troubling.
In a normal community these would be nipped in the bud because it wouldn’t travel very far without negative reaction, but with the internet people can find their pockets, positive and negative, and relish in those communities, for better or for worse.
So because a natural word of mouth community can’t rid the spread of these ideals, and our systems of governance, especially internationally, can’t keep up with them, we’re supposed to just let them spread because the internet has this new electric borne free speech?
If the idea can’t stand the germination through natural lifecycles, then why does it deserve to stand an unnatural one?
And so I posit, why does a private entity need to wait for a public one to make a decision, when the general public at large has already made it.
I hope we agree that we don’t want them to ever normalize again. Just like there need to be rules to prevent people from tricking others, there need to be rules to prevent the spread of hatred that we know(!) leads to millions of innocents getting killed.
k
Whilst I understand your point Iggy/miles sonkin the defacto leader is on record of saying the following when talking of treatment of women:
Let’s not kid ourselves this is Pavlovian conditioning!
I can’t see why anyone would allow them to retain access to anyplatform.
Looks like a cult, acts like a cult, it is a cult!
so you’d be the person to give the nazis a platform
“I’m not saying they deserve a platform, they deserve a web app” - jet the absolute doofus
The huge problem with everyone shifting from Reddit is there is the echo chamber and hive mind is going to build back up with it. Most people can’t seem to be nuanced enough to appreciate your comment because they’re seething so much over who the subject is. Liberty is deserved amongst all, not just those you agree with.
You know what? I am fine with a hive mind that collectively decided nazis should be punched and andrew human trafficker tate should be deplatformed.
Sounds like you’re on par with the nazis yourself there buddy. Keep advocating violence and censorship 🤌
Fuck off with that “antifascists are the real nazis” shit.
Lol way to rebuttal yourself. Truth is, you’re no different. But hey, I’m an ancapper, I must be fucked up for thinking every individual has the same rights. 🙄
Also, legitimate question here…what has Andrew Tate factually done that makes him a Nazi and/or fascist?
Appreciate your post. I find it incredibly ironic too, because the fediverse, and Lemmy specifically are open platforms designed exactly against deplatforming as well.
We are all communicating on the platform designed exactly for this scenario. I appreciate that people are going to react and have their own strong opinions, but we’re standing on the foundation of freedom that extends to everyone.
The fediverse (Lemmy included) deplatforms people all the time; it’s called defederation and it’s built into the core of the architecture.
Even platforms built on openness, such as Lemmy, understand the need to not provide a platform to violence, bigotry, and exploitation.
In the sense that an organization can run their own Lemmy instance, even if other people don’t connect to that instance. It censorship resistance. An isolated let me instance still works. They have their platform.
Just like IP routing can survive many routers being destroyed, Lemmy can survive many people disagreeing with each other. That’s what I mean by open, censorship proof, deep platform proof.
People defederating from each other is a feature, and I totally agree with it.
You’re being reasonable. That doesn’t fly here my friend.
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”
Evelyn Beatrice Hall, 1906
Progressive web apps are great, i wish more people use it. 👍
I’m really impressed with crypt.ee and voyager. PWAs really should be the future.
I love the concept of crypt.ee, I just don’t have enough usage to justify the cost. I’m trying out voyager now though! Any other recommendations?
I already listed the two PWAs I use daily.
I don’t use it personally, but I’m very impressed with Starbucks. They made their app a PWA!
Tinder, Spotify, Uber, telegram, etc…
PWAs are kind of like a silent revolution, they’re sneaking in, they’re coming! But it’s mostly companies that either believe in open software, have in app purchases and want to save the 30% store cut, or are trying to tap into emerging markets that don’t have phones that can support the full fat app so the faster PWA makes sense.
Just a clear up a lot of the comments below, I will not respond to any Godwin bait. I will respond to every comment I believe is in good faith.
I’m not condoning any of his alleged actions, but it’s neither Apple’s nor Alphabet’s place to unduly influence what I as a user do, say, think or feel.
It absolutely is Apple’s place to policy the content in their store.
I agree, however they also don’t allow sideloading as far as I know. I think there’s a distinction between policing whats on your store, and what users can install from anywhere.
I actually like that policy. In years I haven’t had the desire or need to install random apps from websites, and I can’t think of anything I’m missing that is excluded from the app store. People do stupid things with security when they install apps from random websites, because most users have no clue at all about privacy or what rogue apps can do. This is especially dangerous with kids and older people. Considering phones can give away location, record audio and video, banking passwords and so on, I think locking them down is fine. Regular apps are bad enough. We don’t need more phone malware.
I couldn’t use my phone at all, without side loading apps. F droid makes side loading open source apps extremely easy, most the apps I use on a daily basis are side-loaded via f droid. My browser, my password manager, my video player, my podcast player, my map system, my VPN, my secure messenger,… none of which are on the main app store.
I’m only using this as an illustration that there is a use case for side loading your own independent ecosystem onto your phone. It gives users more choice
You should check out “obtainium”. You can install apps directly from source. https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium
That’s super interesting. I looked at the burrito video, justifying the migration away from f Droid. And I agree, there’s a lot of good reasons to use the developer keys directly. One nice benefit of f droid though is ensuring the source code matches the binary. With their recent progress in reproducible builds, and using the developer signing keys for those builds, we get the best of both worlds.
I use obtainium for my password manager and a few other apps, i also use f-droid for other apps. The way i understood it, is that f droid uses their own keys for signing apps, different from the source of those apps. But i may be mistaken on that. Also, i use graphene os, even though i believe burritos uninstalled it due to personal issues with the origonal copperhead creator. It still is, imo, the most secure os
ah so you haven’t got a clue how the real world works.
How things are isn’t always how they should be.
I can understand that Apple doesn’t want this garbage on their platform, but they should allow sideloading.
In theory next year the EU will compel them to allow side loading. I look forward to an f Droid type platform for iOS.
I know, but iOS is still garbage. (I used an iPhone for 3 Years, recently switched to GrapheneOS) iOS is essentially spyware, if you can, move away from Apple. GrapheneOS is better than iOS, Stock Android and most Android Custom ROMs. It’s probably the most private and secure mobile OS in the world. Secure enough that even Edward Snowden uses it.
Seconding Grapheneos!
With an f Droid on iOS, I expect to be able to show my friend’s new pipe, simplex chat, real Firefox, hell maybe even briar.
It’ll lead to a better and more open ecosystem, even though graphene is the gold standard.
True, those who are stranded on closed and proprietary operating systems deserve help. I just want to say that sideloading won’t suddenly turn iOS into a customer-respecting, private and open plattform.
