Apple Bans Fortnite from App Store

Autumn Johnson
September 24th, 2021 9:22 AM

Apple has banned Fortnite, a popular video game among teens, from its app store.

Fortnite was banned after it launched its own in-app payment system, bypassing Apple’s system.

Apple charges a whopping 30% commission on in-app purchases, a hefty price for apps that operate in the app store.

While a judge ruled in September that Apple cannot prevent apps from using their own payment systems, the judge also said that Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, failed to prove that Apple was operating a monopoly.

According to the BBC, Apple and Epic are both appealing the judgments that were not in their favor. 

Meanwhile, Epic took to Twitter to slam Apple’s practices.

"Apple spent a year telling the world, the court, and the press they'd 'welcome Epic's return to the App Store if they agree to play by the same rules as everyone else'," Tim Sweeney, chief executive of Epic Games, wrote on Twitter.

"Epic agreed, and now Apple has reneged in another abuse of its monopoly power over a billion users," he added.

According to Sweeney, Apple said that Epic "committed an intentional breach of contract, and breach of trust, by concealing code from Apple" and it would not reinstate its account "until the district court's judgment becomes final and non-appealable.”

Interestingly, Apple’s Tim Cook faced controversy as well after he sent an email to employees warning them not to leak confidential information. The email itself was then leaked.

Cook asserted that Apple would do "everything in [its] power to identify those who leaked" information to the press.

"People who leak confidential information do not belong" at Apple, he added.

Earlier in the year, Apple’s App Store banned Parler, a social media platform created as a “free-speech” alternative to Twitter. It then reinstated the app after backlash online and in Congress.

Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.