Apple Pulls 500px App From Store Over Nudity Concerns

Photography app 500px has been removed from the Apple App Store thanks to the nude photographs found within the app.

The app, which is still available on Google Play, lets users "elegantly showcase your photos, create slideshows, browse your friends' photos and your favorites."

Some of the photos available on 500px, however, are nudes, and while they are generally more artsy than pornographic in nature, they apparently ran afoul of Apple's App Store guidelines.

App studio Pulpfingers, which was recently acquired by 500px, tweeted yesteday that "Apple called us today to inform us that [500px] will be removed" from the App Store.

Earlier today, Pulpfingers said it had "already submitted an update to the @appstore for ISO500. It fixes a few bugs and deals with the nudity concerns."

Those nudity concerns were not immediately apparent to anyone logging in to the app. 500px COO Evgeny Tchebotare told TechCrunch that the app runs in a "safe search" mode by default, but users can switch that off by going into their account on the desktop Web version.

Apple, meanwhile, told the blog that 500px featured "pornographic images and material" and that Cupertino had received complaints "about possible child pornography." Apple said it asked 500px to fix the problem, suggesting that it is open to returning the app to its store.

For more, see PCMag's review of 500px.

Apple has removed a handful of controversial apps from the App Store in recent years, including one that was anti-Israel and another so-called "gay cure" app. For more, see PCMag's slideshow of the most controversial iPhone apps below.

Update: The app returned to the store on Jan. 29.

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.