Journalist Zaid Jilani on Thursday said that one reason Apple and Google have long resisted making changes to widely criticized app store offerings is because “they’re making a ton of money off of apps that are basically scams.”
In an interview on Hill.TV’s “Rising,” Jilani commented on Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-Ga.) questioning of an Apple executive during a Wednesday Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee hearing, during which Ossoff asked whether Apple was making a cut on certain billing practices, including setting up recurring payments for customers for apps that the senator claimed offer “meaningless services.”
Jilani said that Ossoff’s questions pointed to recurring problems with the app stores from Apple and Google’s Android devices, arguing that “some of the leading apps on their app store are basically scams.”
“They have fake reviews, they tend to have free trials that really aren’t free trials, they subscribe people to things that are very hard to unsubscribe from, and they’re basically a bunch of fraudulent and scam apps that lead their store,” the journalist added.
“I think what Ossoff is trying to figure out here is, ‘Is Apple dragging its feet on these things because they’re making a ton of money off of apps that are basically scams?’” Jilani said. “Is that why they take months and months of being pushed and prodded to actually correct and actually take down products that could basically be defrauding consumers?”
Watch part of Jilani’s interview above.
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