It's only a problem if Apple decides to yank it from the App StoreT

Jan 28, 2013 10:18 GMT  ·  By

Vine has been around for a few days now and, after the initial controversy, which probably helped, people are finally focusing on the product. It's very early to call it, but Vine could be something big and may prove a very smart move by Twitter.

But it's not its potential that most people are focusing on, it's the shocking revelation that some people are posting videos of a more "personal" and revelatory nature via the app.

This would be very surprising to anyone who discovered the internet a few hours ago.

But as most iPhone-toting people have heard of this thing called the internet, they do realize that, despite Apple's best efforts, it is full of things which are not safe for work or, indeed, for many other places.

For its part, Twitter has no intention of removing the more risqué videos in Vine, probably a good idea. Tumblr has had a very similar policy and, of course, Twitter itself is very permissive. Incidentally, it may not look like it, but Tumblr is one of Vine's biggest targets.

Twitter prides itself on its censorship-free culture, to the degree permitted by laws in various countries, and it seems that it plans to do the same with its Vine app.

That said, those wanting to avoid these videos can rely on the "report as inappropriate" button. If enough people flag a video, visitors will be met by a warning message before they can view it.

"Users can report videos as inappropriate within the product if they believe the content to be sensitive or inappropriate (e.g. nudity, violence, or medical procedures). Videos that have been reported as inappropriate have a warning message that a viewer must click through before viewing the video," Twitter explained.

"Uploaded videos that are reported and determined to violate our guidelines will be removed from the site, and the User account that posted the video may be terminated," it added.

That said, Twitter's openness may prove detrimental if Apple decides to point its censorship cannon at Vine. Only recently the 500px app has been removed from the app store for making it "easy" to find adult material. 500px is a photo-sharing site in the vein of Flickr.