A member of the employee relations team, said that while the topic was "aligned with Apple's commitment to pay equity", it did not meet the company's Slack Terms of Use.

"Slack channels are provided to conduct Apple business and must advance the work, deliverables, or mission of Apple departments and teams", the employee relations representative told employees.

The company's rules for the in-office chat app say that "Slack channels for activities and hobbies not recognized as Apple Employee clubs or Diversity Network Associations (DNAs) aren't permitted and shouldn't be created".

However some staff think that is a little weird given how Apple’s Slack channels are normally used.

For example, Apple employees have popular Slack channels to discuss #fun-dogs (more than 5,000 members), #gaming (more than 3,000 members), and #dad-jokes (more than 2,000 members).

Apple recently approved a channel called #community-foosball. The cat and dog channels are not part of official clubs, and all of these channels were specifically created to talk about non-work activities.