Apple removes iPhone app promoting secret parties during the COVID-19 pandemic

Apple pulled away an iOS app that encouraged users to organize secret parties despite the pandemic restrictions. App Store removed “Vybe Together,” as it helped users to organize and attend secret parties neglecting social distancing measures.

According to The Verge, “Vybe Together was [a minimum viable product] designed to help other people organize small get-togethers in parks or apartments during COVID”. “We never hosted any large parties, and we made one over-the-top marketing video that left a wrong impression about our intentions, which has since been taken down. We do not condone large unsafe parties during a pandemic.”

With the tagline “Get your rebel on. Get your party on,” the app led people to host parties that were clearly dangerous during the pandemic. Due to the health crisis government had restrictions on indoor gatherings of people from different households.

The New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz tweeted screenshots of the website and slammed the app for promoting COVID-unsafe house parties.

Some terrible people built a whole app for finding and promoting COVID-unsafe large, indoor house parties and they’re using TikTok to market it to millions of ppl. pic.twitter.com/zYhBiFH4vR

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) December 29, 2020

The app was also promoted on TikTok with the slogan “gathering every weekend” and had 25 ratings on the App Store. The app had a few thousand users and thousands of more users requested to join up before the app got pulled away from the ‌App Store‌.