Apple Removes Featured Watch App 'The Whole Pantry' From App Store Amid Fraud Claims

MacRumors · Mar 18, 2015

Apple has removed the award-winning healthy eating app The Whole Pantry from the App Store and its featured Apple Watch apps page amid allegations that its creator Belle Gibson committed fraud, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. The report states that Gibson is accused of making false claims about her cancer diagnosis and failing to donate thousands of dollars collected during fundraisers to charities.

Apple has removed The Whole Pantry from its Apple Watch featured apps page

Apple had been promoting The Whole Pantry as a featured Apple Watch app on its website over the past week, although it has updated the page today to remove the listing. The app also appears to have been pulled from the App Store worldwide, based on spot checks of the United States, Australia, Canada and United Kingdom storefronts. The company has yet to comment on the matter.

The Whole Pantry was featured on the Apple Watch apps page earlier this week

Gibson is a 26-year-old from Melbourne that rose to fame for healing herself from terminal brain cancer without conventional treatment, although the report claims that she later admitted to possibly being misdiagnosed. She has since been the subject of intense scrutiny from her supporters and those that donated to her cause, and has disabled the Facebook page for The Whole Pantry and her personal Instagram account.

Note: Due to the social issues regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple Removes Featured Watch App 'The Whole Pantry' From App Store Amid Fraud Claims

Steviejobz · Mar 18, 2015

wow, people will do just about anything...

i.mac · Mar 18, 2015

Why is this article considered political in nature?

Also, limited to 100 posts? I want to see comments on an article limited to those with 500 posts. Any way...

2457282 · Mar 18, 2015

Never heard of this woman, but it is sad to hear when people do things like this. If true, the level of narcissism is strong in this one.

willmtaylor · Mar 18, 2015

i.mac said:
Why is this article considered political in nature?

"Gibson is a 26-year-old from Melbourne that rose to fame for healing herself from terminal brain cancer without conventional treatment, although the report claims that she later admitted to possibly being misdiagnosed. She has since been the subject of intense scrutiny from her supporters and those that donated to her cause, and has since disabled the Facebook page for The Whole Pantry and her personal Instagram account."

Chatter · Mar 18, 2015

If true, its just sad.

Joe Rossignol · Mar 18, 2015

i.mac said:
Why is this article considered political in nature?

Also, limited to 100 posts? I want to see comments on an article limited to those with 500 posts. Any way...

It is not exactly political, but it is a controversial social issue that we feel is best suited for this forum.

I have updated our disclaimer at the bottom of the article to better reflect this. Thanks.

SpiderDude · Mar 18, 2015

Serious doubt

Joe Rossignol said:
It is not exactly political, but it is a controversial social issue that we feel is best suited for this forum.

I have updated our disclaimer at the bottom of the article to better reflect this. Thanks.

How many people does something have to upset for it to become a social issue?

iSee · Mar 18, 2015

MacRumors said:
...Gibson is a 26-year-old from Melbourne that rose to fame for healing herself from terminal brain cancer without conventional treatment

That should be everything you need to know about Gibson to understand what she is about.

It's a classic con, to offer the promise of something people want to believe so much that they're able to ignore that it doesn't make any sense.

Apple probably should have vetted this app better before featuring it, but I suppose they caught it before it really had a chance to be a problem.

tito2020 · Mar 18, 2015

This has been on the news for a couple of days.

anubis72 · Mar 18, 2015

Holistic BS

Piggie · Mar 18, 2015

What has the healthy eating app got to do with other aspects of her life?

numlock · Mar 18, 2015

Piggie said:
What has the healthy eating app got to do with other aspects of her life?

was wondering that as well. i checked the linked article and watched the video and saw penquin publishing had dropped her as well.

if she is a shyster and a liar how does that affect that app?

HenryDJP · Mar 18, 2015

i.mac said:
Why is this article considered political in nature?

Also, limited to 100 posts? I want to see comments on an article limited to those with 500 posts. Any way...

Well I hope you were being serious, because if you were then I agree with you. Every time there's a controversial news article on MR we get so many new registrants with very nasty posts to anger others. 100 post limit is not enough, but at least it's a start. That's the first time I've seen MR restrict posters with limited post counts for front page articles. Here's to hoping it's increased then maybe we can have a fair and decent discussion for future controversial articles.

Piggie · Mar 18, 2015

numlock said:
was wondering that as well. i checked the linked article and watched the video and saw penquin publishing had dropped her as well.

if she is a shyster and a liar how does that affect that app?

Indeed.

If the app was promoting things she lied about, or she is suggesting things in the app that have been proven to be lies, then fair enough remove it.

But if the app is giving our healthy eating recipes, which are always good.
what's that got to do with her not being 100% honest about some herbal medication curing her brain tumor (or whatever)

Perhaps we need to check how "nice" a person is in RL now, before allowing them to submit an app?

mw360 · Mar 18, 2015

Piggie said:
What has the healthy eating app got to do with other aspects of her life?

In the linked article:'She built her empire off the story of healing herself from terminal brain cancer without conventional treatment'

The app is the product of the business, and the business is the product of the alleged fraud.

ZombiePete · Mar 18, 2015

I wonder if Apple is feeling particularly gunshy about holistic medicine BS after what happened with Steve Jobs, as well? It's probably better not to appear to be in any way in cahoots with such an individual.

numlock · Mar 18, 2015

mw360 said:
In the linked article:'She built her empire off the story of healing herself from terminal brain cancer without conventional treatment'

The app is the product of the business, and the business is the product of the alleged fraud.

i confess i do not know the ins and outs of the terms you agree to when you submit an app but are shysters not allowed? has she been convicted in an actual court of any wrongdoing?

will they look at the legitimacy of the funding of every app now?

greytmom · Mar 18, 2015

Piggie said:
What has the healthy eating app got to do with other aspects of her life?

It would be kind of like Apple allowing an investment advice app from Bernie Madoff to stay in the App Store.

Kaibelf · Mar 18, 2015

Piggie said:
Indeed.

If the app was promoting things she lied about, or she is suggesting things in the app that have been proven to be lies, then fair enough remove it.

But if the app is giving our healthy eating recipes, which are always good.
what's that got to do with her not being 100% honest about some herbal medication curing her brain tumor (or whatever)

Perhaps we need to check how "nice" a person is in RL now, before allowing them to submit an app?

By all means, be dramatic if you choose, but it's pretty obvious. The app was tied into a book which claimed that these holistic recipes helped this woman cure her cancer. All you need is ONE person to say "I bought into this app's message and ate the recipes instead of getting treatment" to drag Apple into a legal gray area where they are partaking in giving out false information. Also, even a HINT of Apple endorsing this woman's false claims and quackery would undermine the HealthKit message. This is about business.

Kissaragi · Mar 18, 2015

So if the allegations are true she would not only have defrauded hundreds of thousands of dollars. She would have probably persuaded some genuine cancer sufferers to forgo conventional treatment and use her diet instead. If its true then she is an evil woman.

John.B · Mar 18, 2015

By curating the App Store, Apple has to defend themselves against the charlatans of the world (either real or perceived). It's that simple.

By contrast, in the wild, wild west of the Google Play store, nobody would even bat an eye.

FieldingMellish · Mar 18, 2015

Apparently the woman healed her wallet by non-traditional means.

numlock · Mar 18, 2015

John.B said:
By curating the App Store, Apple has to defend themselves against the charlatans of the world (either real or perceived). It's that simple.

By contrast, in the wild, wild west of the Google Play store, nobody would even bat an eye.

the app was in the app store, they flew her to california, curated her watch app and you come to the conclusion that apple is on top of things?

so shysters cant have apps in the app store?

John.B · Mar 18, 2015

numlock said:
the app was in the app store, they flew her to california, curated her watch app and you come to the conclusion that apple is on top of things?

so shysters cant have apps in the app store?

That's not what I said, is it?

When an app developer has a "James Frey moment", Apple is forced to react, if only from a PR standpoint. Why? Because Apple takes it upon themselves to curate the apps in their app store.

Nobody has similar expectations for an app such as this to "pass muster" in the Google Play store, because the content is whatever it is (Google's purported new review process notwithstanding).

I'm not passing judgement one way or the other about this developer, I'm saying that, by curating the content, Apple makes themselves responsible for the content.

Apple Removes Featured Watch App 'The Whole Pantry' From App Store Amid Fraud Claims

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