Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/23/apple_pulls_intifada_app/
Apple pulls 'intifada' app
Developer guidelines to the rescue
Posted in Phones, 23rd June 2011 11:51 GMT
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Apple has removed an Arabic ‘intifada’ app from its iTunes store in response to a complaint from the Israeli government.
The Israeli Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli-Yoel Edelstein wrote to Steve Jobs expressing concerns that the app, ThirdIntifada, accessed content that, he alleged, incites violence against Israel [1], Reuters reports.
The app tracks content from 3rdintifada.com, a Palestinian website that reports strong opinions [2] and related activities concerning the issues in that region. It's all in Arabic, but this Google translated page [3] conveys the flavour of its content.
Today, the Thirdintifada app is missing in action, for reasons an Apple spokesman explained yesterday: “We removed this app from the App Store because it violates the developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people [4],” according to the New York Times.
This is not the first time Apple has used its developer guidelines to purge products that generate unwelcome publicity. A Christian ‘gay cure’ app was also outed [5] after the company received a petition of 150,000 signatures from gay rights groups. ®
Links
- http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/23/us-palestinians-israel-apple-idUSTRE75M0V420110623
- http://3rdintifada.com
- http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ar&u=http://www.3rdintifada.com/about.php
- http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/jewish-group-urges-apple-to-remove-intifada-app/
- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/24/apple_withdraws_anti_gay_app/