Pepe the Frog is considered “objectionable content” under Apple’s App Store guidelines. This means that he’s effectively banned.
The App Store rejected Pepe Scream, a game where users yell into their phone to move an image of Pepe up and down. “Your app contains images and references of Pepe the Frog, which are considered objectionable content,” Apple said in its rejection letter to publisher Spirit Realm Games. “It would be appropriate to remove the references and revise the images in your app.”
Motherboard confirmed the rejection notice was real.
Pepe began life as an innocuous character created by cartoonist Matt Furie, but it has increasingly become associated with white supremacists and the far right. The Anti-Defamation League even considers it a hate symbol in certain contexts — like, say, a Pepe with a Hitler mustache might be considered a hate symbol, but not just Pepe itself.
