Apple has removed a dating app for people who haven't had the vaccine for violating its policies for Covid-19 content.
Unjected is a dating-and-community app for unvaccinated people. It was removed from the App Store this weekend and its Instagram was also disabled by the social media platform, in a move its owners likened its removal to censorship.
The app was founded by two mothers from Hawaii Shelby Thomson, 27, and Heather Pyle, 37.
In a video posted on Instagram on Saturday, Ms Thomson said: 'Apparently, we're considered "too much" for sharing our medical autonomy and freedom of choice. So, of course, Apple removed us.'
Apple removed Unjected, a dating-and-community app for people who haven't had the vaccine for violating policies for Covid-19 content (Pictured: Founder Shelby Thomson)
The app was previously rejected from the App Store, but Apple reinstated it after updates where it deleted several features including a social feed and a 'blood bank'.
A spokesperson for Apple told Insider that the app violated Apple's policies for Covid-19 content, citing published interviews where founders said their app was for 'likeminded unvaccinated individuals'.
Posting a screenshot of a Bloomberg News story which said the app was removed after being contacted by a reporter, Unjected said: 'We must use our voices. We are fighting the censorship of our freedoms and we won't stop.'
After founders asked users to avoid anti-vaccination buzzwords such as 'jabbed' and 'microchip', but the spokesperson said this again violated App Store policies as it was trying to trick Apple's reviewers.
In a video posted on Instagram on Saturday, Ms Thomson said: 'Apparently, we're considered "too much" for sharing our medical autonomy and freedom of choice. So, of course, Apple removed us'
Apple's message read: 'Specifically, your social networking app inapprorpiately refers to the Covid-19 pandemic in its concept or theme.'
It's policies only allow information on Covid-19 to come from recognised sources, which includes governments, 'deeply credentialed' companies as well as non-government organisations focused on health.
Unjected's Instagram page, which had 25,000, was deleted following the reports.
Ms Thomson said that their page was disabled by the social media platform after a journalist from Insider contacted Instagram for comment following the reports.
In a caption alongside a video on a new Instagram page, she said: 'Insta deleted us at 25k. This morning our page @the.unjected was removed without any notice or warning.
'We have never been fact checked, or had any post removed for misinformation.
'We were simply deleted because the recent publicity would draw people to our page and they didn't want that.'
The company said it might be easier for them to make the website 'as great as possible', which can't be shut down like the app can.
In an email to Insider yesterday, Thomson said the app had been downloaded 18,000 times and have sent an appeal to Apple, but don't expect the request to be returned.
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