Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Apple Speaks, Sees and Hears no Evil

We have seen a number of Apple ‘censorships’ on their iPhone apps and now mobilecrunch.com offers another lurch back into draconian times.

The Ninjawords pocket dictionary, which is a paid for $2 app now has been given a 17+ rating and warnings of potential objectionable content. However the Ninjawords for iPhone omits all the words deemed “objectionable” by Apple’s App Store reviewers, who even apparently censored an ordinary everyday English dictionary. The Ninjawords programming team made users type in entire bad words in order to see them but that’s was enough for Apple censors. They also deleted all offensive entries, but unfortunately missed one and were rejected again. Then finally when full clean were given a 17+ rating!

The stupidity of Apple is one thing but what is being censored or restricted are words. Words many of us use everyday. Words that litter the pages of many a modern classic and are probably found in virtually every new novel. Words we hear everyday in all walks of life.

The issue is not whether Apple is right or wrong but why in a world that supports free speech, has with the exception of liable has removed text censorship we are adopting a policy that would be only applauded in repressed societies, dictatorships and probably appeals to governments who disrespect civil rights?

Apple needs to offer control, choice and stop shooting itself in the foot.

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