Apple briefly removed several popular Reddit clients from the App Store, after it began cracking down on a feature allowing users to toggle whether "not safe for work" content is displayed by default.
Apps such as Antenna, Eggplant, Narwhal, and Submarine suddenly vanished from the store on Monday -- or had updates rejected -- because of App Store rule 18.2, blocking apps with user-generated content that is "frequently pornographic."
A Reddit moderator said that two official Reddit clients, Alien Blue and Reddit Official, were asked to be resubmitted to remove a "Safe for Work Browsing" toggle, despite the fact that the feature was developed with help from Apple.
While some titles are now back on the App Store in modified form, others appear to be intact without changes. The developer of Eggplant, for instance, noted that Apple suddenly restored the pulled version, leaving a modified update sitting in the review queue. That may suggest that Apple reviewers changed their interpretation of rule 18.2, though that's uncertain.
Apple has often come under fire for the strictness of its App Store content policies. While almost anything is permitted in video sold on the iTunes Store, censorship is much stricter at the App Store, even when potentially offensive content is incidental to the app's main purpose, as with Reddit clients.