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Complaints about Apple’s censorship shouldn’t be limited to just foreign governments, which is a myopic and self-serving stance I often see in posts like this.

Complaints about Apple’s censorship shouldn’t be limited to just foreign governments, which is a myopic and self-serving stance I often see in posts like this. It’s important to demand transparent free speech policies across the board for everyone. Like other big tech companies, Apple also censors content that doesn’t align with their progressive biases. They’ve banned numerous conservative apps from their App Store, and have threatened to ban others (example: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/06/tech-tyranny-apple-threatens-to-kick-social-media-company-parler-off-app-store-if-they-dont-ban-offensive-conservative-content/ https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/06/tech-tyranny-apple-...). They’ve also engaged in the cultural wars more directly by doing things like replacing the gun emoji with the squirt gun emoji (https://blog.emojipedia.org/apple-and-the-gun-emoji/ https://blog.emojipedia.org/apple-and-the-gun-emoji/). At this rate I will be unsurprised when Apple decides to start blocking certain websites across their devices for wrongspeak.

Lutger 6y ago
If by conservative you mean antisemitism, white supremacy, far out conspiracy, racism and hate speech: then yes they banned 'conservative' platforms. That's trying to make a cultural war of broadly accepted, democratic values. It got nothing to do with progressive politics. If you want to go full libertarian and demand Apple to give freedom to all these medieval hate platforms, you'll have to allow IS and the Al Qaidas of this world their jihadism videos too.
- encom 6y ago
  Apple doesn't care about racism. Why else would they allow a song called "Fuck White People" on iTunes? https://music.apple.com/us/search?term=fuck%20white%20people https://music.apple.com/us/search?term=fuck%20white%20people
  - acdha 6y ago
    Did you listen to the song? I mean, I’m a white guy and it’s hard to read the lyrics and not say they’re coming from a place of legitimate grievance: https://genius.com/Ajj-fuck-white-people-lyrics https://genius.com/Ajj-fuck-white-people-lyrics This hits the key point: there’s no history of oppression adding weight to that. Someone can not like white people but that’s not linked to a history of violence, financial discrimination, etc. which is living memory for a LOT of non-white people. There’s a big difference between not liking/trusting and echoing real threats of organized violence.
    - soylentcola 6y ago
      Not to mention how (for better or worse) they don't apply the same content restrictions to music, movies, and other media as they do to software. A movie can include a sex scene or a song can include someone using explicit language to express how they feel about something. They will still often sell them. Not sure how I feel about it, but it seems to have been their policy for a while now.
    - encom 6y ago
      >they’re coming from a place of legitimate grievance Kill the white devil Kill the white devil Kill the white devil Kill the white devil There's no way to talk around the fact that that's just racist as fuck.
      - acdha 6y ago
        Again, read the entire song. It’s not exactly profound but if you aren’t cherry-picking it seems a lot more likely that they’re referring to the people who supported the colonization, slavery, and other violence mentioned earlier in the song. That’s why I mentioned the history since those were widespread real problems which still affect millions of people whereas the average white person has no credible reason to fear being mistreated.
        tartoran 6y ago
        I'm white and not a racist at all (have multicultural family, think we're all capable humans but also think any race/religion can have its antisocial parasites amongst them) but do find that song more as stirring hate rather than coming from a place of grievance. The song is putting all whiteness and all history in one bucket and setting it on fire. That's no different than a white guy being mugged by a black guy and crying black is evil and pointing at the guy's color. This song doesn't help the black cause at all, the blacks in America have indeed been deprived and put down and am willing to put a hand and stop it What happened to the unifying message of love? Hate is divisive and never brought anything good to the table.

Lutger 6y ago

If by conservative you mean antisemitism, white supremacy, far out conspiracy, racism and hate speech: then yes they banned 'conservative' platforms. That's trying to make a cultural war of broadly accepted, democratic values. It got nothing to do with progressive politics. If you want to go full libertarian and demand Apple to give freedom to all these medieval hate platforms, you'll have to allow IS and the Al Qaidas of this world their jihadism videos too.

encom 6y ago
Apple doesn't care about racism. Why else would they allow a song called "Fuck White People" on iTunes? https://music.apple.com/us/search?term=fuck%20white%20people https://music.apple.com/us/search?term=fuck%20white%20people
- acdha 6y ago
  Did you listen to the song? I mean, I’m a white guy and it’s hard to read the lyrics and not say they’re coming from a place of legitimate grievance: https://genius.com/Ajj-fuck-white-people-lyrics https://genius.com/Ajj-fuck-white-people-lyrics This hits the key point: there’s no history of oppression adding weight to that. Someone can not like white people but that’s not linked to a history of violence, financial discrimination, etc. which is living memory for a LOT of non-white people. There’s a big difference between not liking/trusting and echoing real threats of organized violence.
  - soylentcola 6y ago
    Not to mention how (for better or worse) they don't apply the same content restrictions to music, movies, and other media as they do to software. A movie can include a sex scene or a song can include someone using explicit language to express how they feel about something. They will still often sell them. Not sure how I feel about it, but it seems to have been their policy for a while now.
  - encom 6y ago
    >they’re coming from a place of legitimate grievance Kill the white devil Kill the white devil Kill the white devil Kill the white devil There's no way to talk around the fact that that's just racist as fuck.
    - acdha 6y ago
      Again, read the entire song. It’s not exactly profound but if you aren’t cherry-picking it seems a lot more likely that they’re referring to the people who supported the colonization, slavery, and other violence mentioned earlier in the song. That’s why I mentioned the history since those were widespread real problems which still affect millions of people whereas the average white person has no credible reason to fear being mistreated.
      - tartoran 6y ago
        I'm white and not a racist at all (have multicultural family, think we're all capable humans but also think any race/religion can have its antisocial parasites amongst them) but do find that song more as stirring hate rather than coming from a place of grievance. The song is putting all whiteness and all history in one bucket and setting it on fire. That's no different than a white guy being mugged by a black guy and crying black is evil and pointing at the guy's color. This song doesn't help the black cause at all, the blacks in America have indeed been deprived and put down and am willing to put a hand and stop it What happened to the unifying message of love? Hate is divisive and never brought anything good to the table.