Apple has pulled a US app that encouraged users to get together during secret underground gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Vybe Together app, which promotes private parties, has been removed from the Apple App Store, banned its account on TikTok and scrubbed most of its online presence, while the creators of the app told The Verge that Apple banned it .
Vybe Together branded itself on TikTok and its website as a place to organize and attend mostly illegal parties, in violation of the social distance laws, using the heading ‘Get your rebel. Keep your party going. ”.
‘Does it miss playing beer pong, flirting with strangers and usually just waving with the crew? Vybe is here for you, ”reads the website.
Users were asked to submit a profile before being allowed to log in, an application process that includes submitting the applicant’s Instagram handle, as well as uploading photos of their party.
The application enabled people to create private events “no randoms will show up” at. Users can then apply for invitations to events and hope that the host will consider it “interesting” to approve them.
Once they appear on the list, they will wait two hours before the start time of the event to receive location details.
One of the co-founders of Vybe Together said that the app has several thousand users and that several thousand additional applicants have requested access since the company started publishing videos on TikTok.
The VP page of the app – which has now been deleted – acknowledged that Covid-19 was a major health issue for the country, our communities, our friends and family ‘, but claims that the app was designed to’ small gatherings’ in instead of promoting ‘big parties’. “, Who described it as” dangerous “.
‘But Vybe is a compromise […] We can live with Vybe in these times, at least a little. ‘
It remains unclear whether the app – which has only a few hundred followers on Instagram – has significantly fueled significant or unsafe events, although it has promoted ‘meetings every weekend’. in a TikTok video.
The creators of Vybe Together were contacted for comment. Their Instagram account contains the message: “App Store has brought us down !!! We will be back !! ”