chicus.com

Apple and Censorship
Mar 22, 2010
I came across this article about Apple rejecting an iPhone app created by a German artist on the grounds that it was indecent. I can see and on some level respect Apple's desire and right...I'm going to allow myself to revisit that word later...to censor content created explicitly for distribution on their proprietary platform but it also concerns me.

First off, I see a significant disparity in their decision to block this individual app. The rejected app is not an app to sift the internet for porn or troll for random sexual encounters. It shows normal people who aren't even fully naked in an attempt to make an artistic point. "What is art?" could be debated and our opinions may differ but they are blocking an app which doesn't even show actual nudity. However, if you go to the iTunes store you can purchase the Black Crowes album Amorica whose cover is a close up image of a woman in a flag thong with pubic hair showing. You can also purchase 200 songs from 2 Live Crew, whose lyrics might not be as shocking today as they were in the 80's but promote recreational sex and the objectification of women, to put it quite mildly. I have some trouble understanding why one of these items is banned from their online store but the others are permitted.

My other concern has to do with the extension of this policy to the iPad, which releases in a couple of weeks. Should the iPad become the most widely used ebook reader and Apple continues to censor content this could have real implications with the availability of texts. OK, that might be a stretch. However, a more concrete example is in college texts. If Apple found that app objectionable who is to say they would let a college Sexuality text onto their platform? I worked on such texts back in the day and have seen content they could find more objectionable than near-nudity.

I think the chances of them blocking such a text are pretty slim, honestly, because they would be blocking themselves from a revenue stream and the potential of a school requiring adoption of their platform for ebooks.

I wonder if the answer lies in revenue. I couldn't find if this app is free or requires a fee but it would be much easier to block something which will provide no income than songs or texts which will certainly bring in money.