500px yanked from App Store over nude photo concerns

You may already be familiar with the 500px photo sharing service, both in its web form and the official iOS app. If you're a fan of the latter, you'll be dismayed to learn that the app has been pulled down from Apple's App Store over concerns that it allows users to search for nude photos too easily, according to TechCrunch. Another 500px browsing app called ISO500 -- which 500px just acquired, as a matter of fact -- has also been removed today for the same reason.

In speaking with TechCrunch, 500px COO Evgeny Tchebotarev explained that after submitting a recent update to its flagship app, Apple rejected it due to its search feature allowing the user to query for nude images. Both the website and the app do (or "did") allow users to search for and browse nude photos, though anything deemed blatantly pornographic is removed from the service as soon as it is flagged.

Many art lovers enjoy artistic nude photos, and as 500px is a service for photography and art buffs, the fact that the company allows these works is understandable. It's also important to keep in mind that just about anyone can open the default Safari mobile web browser and find explicitly graphic pornography in a matter of seconds.

500px is working on a new update to the app that will hopefully allow the apps to return to their place in the App Store.