Well, apple did supposedly say it was 'not appropriate.' So what do you think apple would consider to be 'not appropriate'? I'd guess things like extreme violence, nudity, promotion of racism.

From the scant details provided, it looks to me that tgis could be out of context: "iOS operating system doesn't provide access to specific private APIs or other hardware that may affect the results."

My guess is he is trying to access non public apis.

I don’t know (how could I?) but I think the range of possibilities is wider than what you’ve mentioned. Perhaps it’s related to what they were quoted as saying, a problem with a discrepancy between the possible perceived reliability of the information and its actual reliability. I repeat, perhaps. I don’t know.

> Developer has made up an interpretation

I don't see any made-up interpretation. All I see is a direct quote from Apple's response when asked why the app was rejected.

If you didn't see it, it's because you didn't read what he said. Read on a little bit more and you'll see this:

"AFAICT, the app was rejected because we used the words "net neutrality" in the description."

That's not from Apple. That's from him. Made up.

> Read on a little bit more

How exactly do I do that? (I know that probably sounds like I'm trolling, but I'm not. It's a serious question. I never use Twitter.)

What did you see when you viewed the link? For me all I had to do was scroll, no special knowledge needed beyond that.

Maybe if don't have an account it shows something different.

Oh, I see, those are followup tweets. I thought they were responses. Didn't pay close enough attention.

So I still don't see any "made-up interpretation". All I see is a sober recounting of their questions and Apple's replies, and one very defensible (IMO) interpretation of the events, clearly labelled with an "AFAICT" disclaimer.

This response is a much worse spin than that allegedly purported by the app author. So an app potentially flags net neutrality violations, why the fuck does Apple care? What's the exact app store rule that forbids random, inaccurate judgements?

I've argued this multiple times, but HN seems to not understand Apple's dominance in the app market. If your app isn't on the Apple app store, and your business model depends on payments (not advertising), then you're irrelevant in Western Europe, US and far East Asia. In the market segment that pays for apps & software, Apple is the dominant channel. In most other industries, such a pole position would qualify as a monopoly, but Apple is great at deflecting scrutiny, or the regulators are in their pockets. In either case, their BS app approval process is horrible for the industry, including the end consumers.

In the history of general purpose computing, never ever has a company sold hardware to the customer transferring ownership rights to the customer, and then locked the device up to apps approved by the hardware manufacturer, going as far as taking a 30% cut. How this is flying past regulators is anyone's guess, and as more time progresses, people will begin to think that running apps on hardware they own is a privilege, not a right. Ludicrous!!

My only spin as you call it is that we can’t really know why Apple rejected the app based on the thin and twisted say-so of this one developer who is willing to promote an odd theory about it.

Any app publishing platform has to make tradeoffs for security versus openness. Some people will think they get it wrong. You are one of those people, I get it.

But there are basic points your thinking does not acknowledge despite your statement that you’ve been over this before, so I suspect it’s not useful trying to explain much more than that to you.

Your "spin" is casting doubt on an academic app publisher. Your theory is just as plausible as the app publisher's. Effectively, both are "spins" unless verified as absolute truths

>So an app potentially flags net neutrality violations, why the fuck does Apple care

We have no idea whether they care.

You think they care just because you read someone say it on the internet.

Think about that.

That’s not a sufficient basis for knowing what was wrong with the app, nor what else was wrong with the app.