Pepe The Frog Meme Ban: Apple Rejects App Featuring Alt-Right Character From The App Store

Apple banned an app featuring Pepe the Frog, a meme loved by the alt-right, the developer said in a Reddit post found by Motherboard.

The developer of the app, Pepe Scream, received an email from an Apple app review employee saying the “your app contains images and references of Pepe the Frog, which are considered objectionable content."

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Pepe Scream was rejected by Apple for violating section 1.1 of Apple's App Store Review Guidelines, which states that apps "should not include content that is offensive, insensitive, upsetting, intended to disgust, or in exceptionally poor taste."

“My friend and I came up with the idea of combining sh--posting with autistic screeching, so we made this just for fun,” the developer said on Reddit. “But when we tried to release to the App Store, we got hit with 'Your app contains images and references of Pepe the Frog, which are considered objectionable content.' This is pretty stupid, because we spent a ton of hours trying to get this to work on iOS and spent $99 on the developer license, and now we can’t even post it to the App Store.”

The developer pointed out that the app is live in Google’s Play Store, which also houses other Pepe the Frog apps, including Pepe Snap, Rare Pepe Clicker, Flappy Pepe and Pepe Button.

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Pepe Scream isn’t the first Pepe app Apple has rejected. Last October, the App Store denied Build the Wall: The Game, also over objectionable content. The game lets users build President Donald Trump’s wall and features Pepe the Frog.

Apple could have rejected those apps because Pepe the Frog is seen as a hate sign. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a nonprofit that fights anti-Semitism, listed the character as a “general hate symbol.”

"The majority of uses of Pepe the Frog have been, and continue to be, non-bigoted,” said ADL in a post. “The number of ‘alt right’ Pepe memes has grown, a tendency exacerbated by the controversial and contentious 2016 presidential election. Though Pepe memes have many defenders, the use of racist and bigoted versions of Pepe memes seems to be increasing, not decreasing.”

Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook poked fun at Trump’s early morning tweeting habit. During his commencement speech at MIT Friday, Cook said he’ll “never figure out” how the school’s students “have obviously taken over the president's Twitter account."

"I can tell college students are behind it, because most of the tweets happen at 3 a.m.," Cook said as the audience laughed.

Apple has been at odds with Trump recently. The company criticized the administration over the Trump’s travel ban. Cook also said Trump made the wrong decision regarding the Paris climate agreement.

“I think it’s not in the best interest of the United States what he decided,” Cook told Bloomberg. “My view is that first and foremost things are about, can you help your country and if you can help your country and you do that by interacting, then you do it. The country eclipses politics.”