The Verge has changed its story about this article and even the headline. The headline now reads "Apple's iPhone 7 camera lens uses pure sapphire despite test claims" and The Verge has added a retraction after Apple responded to their inquiry.
Update October 5th, 1PM ET: Apple has confirmed to The Verge that the company uses sapphire in its iPhone camera lens. It appears the correct testing conditions weren't adhered to in JerryRigEverything's tests. "Apple confirms the iPhone 7 camera lens is sapphire, and under proper testing conditions achieves the hardness and purity results expected from sapphire," says an Apple spokesperson.
The fact is that Apple uses Sapphire in the cover lenses on its cameras, but the "JerryRigEverything" YouTube testing puts far too much pressure on their scratch tester. Like all very hard materials including diamond, Sapphire is brittle, and their testing rig's hardness point did not scratch the Sapphire cover lens, it cracked it!
The planar sapphire lens that covers the glass lens system on the Apple cameras is there purely for protection and while it is thick enough for environmental scratch protection, it is not thick enough to withstand the pressure of a point contact of a machine deliberately pressing on it. It was not designed for that kind of pressure. Here is a photo of the lenses in a typical iPhone:
