Week 8 - 'Crime-reporting app Vigilante kicked off App Store over Apple's content concerns'

'Crime-reporting app Vigilante kicked off App Store over Apple's content concerns'
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/01/vigilante-app-removed-apple-store

Vigilante is a crime-reporting app which reports crimes within the area for citizens to be aware of - Apple refused to have this app in it's app store as they believed this was a way to empower citizens rather than help prevent crimes

• This app was launched in New York and created by Sp0n. It is designed to alert nearby users whenever a crime is reported to 911 
• The attempt is that users are therefore able to help avoid the crime or film it on their smartphone for evidence 
• Apple kicked the app of their app store - "The developers believe that opening up crime reporting in this way empowers people. 'The closed system excludes the community while the open system informs and empowers citizens,' it says."
• Sam Gregory believes that it raises many ethical issues around consent and sharing - “Vigilantism is a very different idea to being an ethical witness to what’s happening,” he said.
"Apple doesn’t comment on individual decisions, but the App Store has strict rules about user-generated content apps to prevent abuse or bullying. The company also rejects apps if they risk physical harm, which could be possible if a load of vigilantes took their pitchforks to a crime scene"

There are a countless number of problems with this Vigilante App and the fact that Apple has decided to not include this in their app store is a positive thing, in my opinion. This app clearly has the intentions of creating citizen journalism as something for everyone and something easily accessible for all audiences, however the ethical issues that these raise are countless. The fact that users would be aware of criminal activity within their area may cause them to act upon the situation as this 'vigilante' and therefore get hurt in the process. I think the police and the law enforcement are supposed to be within our society in order to serve and protect us from criminal activity, what this app is essentially doing is making us all part of the law enforcement. This idea of taking the law into our own hands is something that should not be tampered with as it could lead to drastic consequences as we are not trained professionals. There's also the issue of a bystander adding fuel to the fire instead of actually diffusing the situation, officers are trained to diffuse and handle situations in a particular way so this is another issue. There are positives to this also, as people are made aware of surrounding events and could potentially help someone if they are nearby, however these positives do not outweigh the negatives of this app as it something that could potentially cause disruption within a neighbourhood as users may want to act like a vigilante and get hurt in the process rather than leaving it to the professionals. There's a huge difference between being at the scene of the crime at that moment and trying to help and actually sitting at home waiting to help someone.