According to a media report, a bug in the Apple App Store removed around 22 Million Ratings of popular apps including Microsoft, Google, Nike, Hulu, and Starbucks within a week. Appfigures- the mobile app insights platform spotted the dropping of ratings for the very first time. The firm found that over 300 apps from more than 200 developers were affected because of this bug and this erased 22 million app reviews from App Store of Apple. Appfigures said "More than 300 apps from more than 200 developers, both popular and indie, were affected by this sweep, which erased over 22 million reviews between October 23 and 24. On average, the apps saw a 50% decrease in ratings in affected countries. Some apps however got hit harder than others. Hulu lost 95 percent of its ratings in the US. Chase and Dropbox lost about 85 percent of their ratings in the US". The problem began on 23rd October 2019 and till 29th October, it was not resolved. The iPhone maker accepted about the bug due to which the ratings has been removed. Also Read: Twitter To Ban All Political Ads By Mid-November, CEO Jack Dorsey The most affected country was U.S. as around 10 Million of ratings were disappeared. This bug not only affected U.S. but worldwide. Around 155 countries Apple support were affected which also includes Australia, China, Russia, South Korea, and the UK, with 2.7 million ratings deleted. The Appfigures blog post added, "But, it's important to note that most individual apps only got hit in a few countries and not all. This could indicate this isn't a simple “error” but rather something more intentional". It also noted that both the positive as well as negative comments were removed, which indicated that Apple did not intentionally removed the fake reviews. Appfigures in an update on 29th October 2019 said that Apple has acknowledged the issue as an error, and is in the process of restoring ratings to all affected apps.
