Apps that encourage people to speed or even kill themselves, and others that promote vaping, drug-taking, drinking and gambling, could begin to appear on iPhones if Apple is forced to open the platform up to competition, lawyers for the company said on Tuesday.

“Pig butchering” – a nickname for using social engineering to “fatten up” victims before you “slaughter them and take all their money” – would also be more likely in a world where Apple’s “sophisticated security system” was not allowed to operate properly, a lawyer for Apple told the Federal Court.