BANNED from the app store!

Tap Cop was created in June 2020. The uprisings against the systemic murder of people (mostly black and indigenous ppl) was experienced by many, including myself, through social media.

The (in)famous black square posts flooded the apps, as users sought some way to vent mounting social tensions in a context constrained by the early pandemic, and brands used the opportunity for virtue harvesting.

We made this app for similar reasons. Technology is extremely limited in its potential for organization, instead favouring aesthetic engagement. Tap Cop is just such an aesthetic exercise, perhaps an alternative to doomscrolling and, speculatively, a more useful exercise as it avoids the behavioural manipulation of infinite content feeds.

When we tried to submit the app to Apple's App Store at the time, they rejected it on the basis of objectionable content. In conversation with the App Store "mods," I suggested that games already present in the App Store already feature violence towards virtual cops, eg. GTA San Andreas.

Here are some posts collected at the time of the uprisings for historical reference and posterity.