In another fascinating move by the App Store acceptance team (Motto: Lunch is tasty! Is that a butterfly? We like cake.) the Ninjawords pocket dictionary, a $2 app, has been given an 17+ rating after being censored by Apple. This ensures that tittering schoolboys won’t scroll through the app and discover bad words like “tits,” “micturition,” and “enough with this wanton disregard for your customer’s intelligence, Apple. Do you only hire barely literate, rule-cleaving sub-morons with no judgement skills to police your damned App Store?”
John “Tiny” Gruber interviewed the folks who made the app and writes:
But Ninjawords for iPhone suffers one humiliating flaw: it omits all the words deemed “objectionable” by Apple’s App Store reviewers, despite the fact that Ninjawords carries a 17+ rating.
Apple censored an English dictionary.
A dictionary. A reference book. For words contained in all reasonable dictionaries. For words contained in dictionaries that are used every day in elementary school libraries and classrooms.
In fact, as this image attests, the OS X dictionary actually contains bad words including, but not limited to the f-bomb, the c-bomb, and the q-bomb.
In order to prevent accidental disclosure of bad words, the programming team was nice enough to require users to type in entire bad words in order to see them (”fuck” not “fuc”) – ensuring you can’t just flick through and find them – but that’s not nearly enough for Apple. No, the dictionary must be scoured of scurrilous talk.
After being rejected a first time, the programmers removed most of the bad words, missed one, and got rejected again. Finally, they took out all the words including ass, snatch, pussy, cock, and screw. Finally, after a long wait they got into the app store but on double-secret probation with a 17+ rating and warnings of potential objectionable content. As Gruber notes:
Apple requires you to be 17 years or older to purchase a censored dictionary that omits half the words Steve Jobs uses every day.
I’m so angry I’m going to call someone using the iPhone Google Voice app… oh wait.
If they badly want more people to jailbreak their phones then that’s definitely the right strategy.
No red underline in my MacBook Pro when I write the f word. Good news is that Apple helps me write foul language properly. Bad news is that they accept fowl language, too.
Ridiculous. The problem is the lack of consistency. I have an iPhone dictionary app called WeDict and it contains all of those “banned” words.
I have typed some really interesting email responses, on my iPhone, because I wasn’t paying attention to the screen as I typed. In one case, after upgrading to v3.0 my e-mail response had three obscenities and indicated I was in involved in lesbian activities. Thankfully, I always read my emails before sending them, but I was laughing so hard I almost dropped my phone.
Amusingly, there’s been an app available for some time that is called “Snatch.”
http://bit.ly/1XFgt (iTunes link)
I guess the censorship guidelines only apply to application content, not to the actual name…
you can prick your finger but you can’t finger your prick
Some people can do that too.
LOL, it rather humorous considering what kids hear on a school bus anyway. Not to mention Apple has other uncensored apps.
This rating system is ridiculous. Two of our news apps (iNewz and its free version) were rejected this morning for not being rated correctly. They were set at 12+ based on answering the questions Apple’s rating system asks. I think 12 year olds ought to be old enough to read the news; seems that Apple disagrees.
Even more amusingly, a few hours after the rejection of iNewz and iNewz Free, I get approvals of the updates to iNewz Tech and iNewz Green. Those were both rated lower by Apple’s silly questionnaire based rating form, but both have the same web view model for viewing the full article. No consistency at all in the review process it seems.
I now just give most my apps a 17+ rating. I got tired of waiting a month for a review and getting the infamous “Your app is taking longer than normal to review” email which only portends imminent rejection.
ohh fuck you apple .. ohh wait .. i am gonna get apple sauce banned
Yes, this happened to Scrappy : Scrabble Dictionary too (http://bit.ly/scrappy). Words that didn’t make the cut (that are actually valid plays) were the C-word, F-word, S-word, and N-word and their variants. Funny that all there are many other apps that have every last word of SOWPODS, but they are generally anagram finders and require typing in all the letters. It seemed too much for Apple to type in UN and then scroll down a list tainted with the C-bomb. Words with alternate, legitimate meanings survived: pussy (cat), dick (tracy), snatch (away)
http://bitly.com/scrappy
If they let the words stay, and some disgruntled parent got their panties in a bunch because little Timmy who learned to say fuck when he was 5 by listening to his parents but blamed it on an iphone app, this would be an article titled, “Who the fuck is approving this shit” where you bitch and moan that apple is not looking at apps and protecting the innocence of our precious children.
c’mon write about something we actually care about.
Look at how stupid you are.
@MarkAplet – what are you stupid or something?
uhm i care about this…especially if the words being censored in these apps are also in the apple reference library.
kids are smart. you may think they don’t know how to swear but it’s most likely not possible. even people in the backwooods of everywhere in the world know how to swear, in english or another language.
this isn’t about overbearing parents at all who buy or allow their own kids to use gadgets. the www is easily accessible and has liberated the kids…right along with adult literature and films. kids know how to curse, even drive cars (did you see the youtube videos of the seven year old boys driving their parent’s cars…lol.), have sex, steal, break in to movie theatres still, and lots of other things. a silly, although maybe necessary ratings system isn’t going to keep a kid from doing what they want to do, parents or no parents.
I actually care about this information and thank TechCrunch for bringing it to my attention.
@Mark Aplet Why would F…ing 5 year old have an iPhone?
exactly. if they do the parents need to see me for some common sense lessons…
Obviously, you’ve never been to Los Angeles / Beverly Hills
The poor underprivileged kid with _only_ an iPhone! I regularly see > 10 year olds running around with high-end Cannon D-SLRs, etc, etc. I’m in South Carolina too. Its crazy that I’ve seen kiddies running around (literally) with tech toys much nicer than anything I own.
it pisses me off and makes me feel sooooo old
My son had a cell phone with internet access by 6. (not me decision! my son is 3000 miles away out of my control) At 8 he was forwarding me adult jokes! So it happens. Kids today have all the cool gadgets including iPhones. Maybe because it’s easier to buy their kids a new gadget and keep them entertained than actually parent.
My point is this. Censorship sucks! but it happens all day everyday. Get over it. Thanks to all the sue happy jerks looking to make an easy buck, Apple and everyone else has to cover their ass.
you let your 6 year old son have a cellphone with full internet service…wow. that is one lucky kid. did he know how to text message and download music and all that stuff. i held out for a long time. i still don’t know how to use the internet on my nokia. and no way would my parents allow me to have a phone at 6 years of age.
show me a big city where a parent isn’t letting their little tyke use gadgets and even their comps to go on the internet. my cousins are well versed in barbie.com, anything stupid dorah, bratz, nickelodean kids, disney, and some other sites. anything with stupid games and they are there…especially if it looks like an animated character with huge eyes and lots of hair. my uncles and aunts, the kids parents, try to make sure the sites are okay, but once the kids get this down they get very smart and sly. i know little kids in grade 2 who use msn and think it’s necessary to have a list of all their school buddies because they are all bffs and need to talk everyday…but they can’t just call each other or visit like how we used to do at that age. meh. lots of little brainy kids out there. hahaha and they curse too but they make it cute and do the whole oh i didn’t mean to do that i just heard it on the playground, or from a teacher, or school staff or from my parents.
You’d think that after the FCC stepped in over the GV debacle, Apple might be a little more cautious over what it rejects and doesn’t. Censoring the English language? Doesn’t seem like a good idea to me Stevie.
Q-bomb?
I know. I’m completely clueless about this one as well.
Okay, I managed to find the word “quiff” but a google search for it is blocked by my work firewall as adult content so . . .
Quiff? Like a woman fart? Mr Biggs please explain.
queef
yeah. +1
what’s a quiff? remindes me of swiffer.
Apple’s regulators are almost as bad as Obama’s.
um wut
haha this is funny :) just two words. “over regulation”
buy a palm pre
brilliant suggestion!
oh we hate you , oh we love you
The CURE……Monday Apple loves me and Tuesday Apple yells at me so fiercly that I was shaking with sadness and on Wednesday Apple loves me…..What will Thursday bring?
Drama for youre Mama!
What about Apple allowing search in the browser – you can search for some words that start with f as well. Should the entire iPhone be rated 17+?
yes, yes it should. i mean as long as we continue to be dumb i don’t think apple can excuse itself from it’s own stupidity. they should censor themself. i wonder how that would go…would that be a one man conversation with self?
An app of mine recently got rejected because it contained “mature and suggestive content”. Want to know what it did? There are a few brief links to Wikipedia and Google pages!!!
lol. man. they need to have a more credible setup of what is or is not acceptable.
Apple is using Gestapo Tactics!
Do you guys ever reach out to Apple for comments on stuff like this?
like that would do any good. “we can’t comment on that” would be their most likely answer
standard pr
What’s the q bomb?
check the answer above.
Conventional wisdom tends that a lot of bad press is really really bad press. Apple has succeeded in this stunningly. Taken together, all Apple’s very public and much debated gaffes communicate quite emphatically that Apple decides what you can put on your phone that you own.
Apple’s computer contingent, pre-iPhone of course, has seen this behavior from Apple for years. Steve Jobs is notorious for his controlling ways. AMD and Motorola I suspect could wax bitterly for days I’m sure. It’s even rumored that because Apple (Steve maybe) doesn’t think gaming is a worthy use of Apple computers its not really pursued. While a really big rumor, it is clear that Apple has made no effort to pursue this market seriously. So rumor or not, its clear there was a decision made not to go after gamers, even though gamers buy computers and sometimes expensive one. Apple’s re(fusal)luctance to offer serious graphics cards is another place where their controlling ways evidence themselves.
Given Apple’s footprint in the computer market of yore, these practices which believe it or not brought about a very unified and consistent, read highly brand-able, experience was certainly more tenable then than now. Increasingly, Apple is a consumer electronics company and that market I suspect will not be as beholden to Apple’s controlling ways. World+dog of the iPhone & iPod owners are many of the same people Apple couldn’t convince to purchase an Apple Computer. Translation: If Apple couldn’t sell its way of thinking to the same people then, it might not be so successful now. Windows users especially are used to a much wider selection of applications and even though its a miniscule amount, I don’t think any message that Apple artificially limits what’s available to users of any of its wares, is acceptable. Especially with the iPhone being the gateway to the Apple computing experience, Apple needs to be very careful what they communicate about that experience.
Clbuttic mistake.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2667634/The-Clbuttic-Mistake-When-obscenity-filters-go-wrong.html
Apple is pretty dumb for rejecting apps and they deserve all the criticism when it comes to rejecting an app like the Google Voice App.
However, in this case, they are not rejecting the app. This article seems to be making a big deal about nothing and trying to bandwagon a BS criticism on top of legit criticism.
This article would be similar to being pissed of about a movie that got an R rating when it should have gotten a PG-13…yeh, maybe it didn’t deserve an R rating, but come on! The anger in this case is totally unwarranted.
DUN DUN DUN…Another one bites the dust!
@Hamid I think you’re missing the point.
Um yeah Hamid. Please look around your house. If you are educated (lots of people on the interwebs aren’t), you might find a thick, heavy book called a dictionary that includes definitions of “fuck”, “sex”, and “vagina”.
OMG..I’m on a commenting spree today.
@Hamid – The problem here is that they are requiring a dictionary app to remove certain words, after having already approved several dictionary apps that contain those words. I have the Dictionary.com app, and every word mentioned in this article is contained in that app.
This article is not about this one particular app, but about the terrible, terrible, oh-so-terrible app approval process that Apple seems to be doing nothing about.
+1
anyone made an urban dictionary app for the ipod? cause that wouldn’t make the cut at all. if there is one let me know and let me know if it’s 100% kosher.
All those bad words are in the Dictionary application that Apple puts on every Mac. I guess it’s more of a case of do as I say, not as I do…
they’re also in other dictionary apps they’ve already approved for the iphone.
Come on Apple, what is this? China?
No, China is just where they have children assemble their hardware. I’m pretty sure app approval is handled in Saudi Arabia.
This doesn’t bode well for my upcoming app, 1001 ways to use cunt in a sentence. It really is earth shattering. Also makes fart noises.
apple reminders me of Microsoft November 1997 and how they treated there customers.
This isn’t the first time Apple’s done this either. Our Chinese-English dictionary app – HippoDict – went through almost the same censorship story in January.
The App Store didn’t have age ratings at that time, so fortunately we didn’t have to deal with that ridiculousness.
The worst part was that a bunch of other C-E
dictionary apps had and continue to have “objectionable content” apparently without issue, making the App Store singling us out particularly arbitrary and frustrating.
The last quote about Jobs is very nice.
Does anybody think that apple might be occasionally doing this for the press it creates?
I mean, a new dictionary app on the iphone = not news worthy.
A new dictionary app rejected/ censored by Apple for basically no reason = a major topic of discussion.
Only a fool would consider this a good thing, Bob. It’s bad press, and study after study after study proves that bad press is tenfold more harmful than good press.
Put it this way — one consumer vocally complaining about a bad experience they have had carries more weight with all consumers than the twenty other customers who have had good experiences but don’t vocalize about it.
People who have bad customer experiences almost always are vocal about their experience and that’s what you hear about.
Apple doesn’t need press like this. Apple isn’t Lindsay Lohan. This isn’t Hollywood. We don’t show everyone our coochie-coochie while stepping out of a car and hope it’ll land us a movie deal. We dress in the same (unwashed) turtlenecks and blue jeans and hope that noone notices that our sneaker designs are two decades behind trendy, one decade ahead of retro.
this is why i hate sprint and at&t and why none of my extended family members, my friends and their families do not use those providers.
I am a big Mac / iPhone fan, but this is getting ridiculous. A company that is trying to control the language in a dictionary (!) is combining the worst aspects of “1984″ and “Brave New World”. This is a foolish attempt to create a happy virtual world where nothing bad can happen because it cannot even be said/found.
Hey, Apple: Remember “Think different”? I don’t think what you are doing here today represents this spirit. If I wanted that kind of censorship, I’d buy a DisneyPhone.
love the 1984/brave new world reference!
By the way of 1984 – does anyone remember the “1984″ (the novel, not the year) inspired 1984 (the year) commercial?
Oh Apple, you are my new Borg. Microsoft, I shalt never abandon thee.
Seriously? What kind of morons are Apple? I’ve never been too fond of this company, despite their great hardware..they seem too smug about themselves, little elitists with raisin brains.
Every fucking 2 year old has access to a fucking dictionary where he can look up any goddamned fucking word any fucking time he wants to. Should Apple now start fucking around in people’s homes to see if they have fucking dictionaries lying about that might cause people below 17 to read fucking words they probably already have heard a fucking million times if they watch TV for more than a fucking half an hour or overhear fucking adults talking, fucking Steve Jobs included.
Fuck Apple.
Dude, i mean what the fuck? aren’t those fucking babies supposed to stay at home and play with their fucking lego toys instead of fucking around the tubes for a fucking dictionary? for fuck’s sake.
Although i must agree that if fucking Apple is again being a fucking control freak.
sidenote: i ‘d once submitted a word game to apple, where 2 bad words had ’slipped’ in a dictionary of ~30000 words. Well, Murphy makes it so that when they reviewed my app, they hit 1 of the two words. (either that, or they automatically scan the strings for profanities). i mean, fuck!
ha ha. I really, really didn’t expect such behavior from Apple. I mean come on, these guys were supposed to be creators of ‘cool’. Since when did Disney friendly apps become cool?
And how many under 17 year olds have an iPhone anyway?
It’s easy to criticize when you have nothing to lose. Does Apple need to better job (much better) with it’s app approval process, they are also subject to regulatory – ie, some probe or investigation as to why Johnny down loaded a fuck flick – overboard example? Really, then what’s the line, who’s to say? You? What do you have to lose? It doesn’t matter that 90% of people understand that fuck in the dictionary is not an issue as removing it doesn’t really do anything. But, with Ms. Self-righteous from a red state goes up in arms about the liberal devil’s potty dictionary and how it’s corrupting her Johnny, and she tells the church and the church supports Senator or Representative X, well you know what, how ’bout we just avoid all that an instead of deleting the whole app we just put an 17+ label on it.
I mean Jesus fucking Christ.
Not sure why people are surprised. It’ll only get worse.
really? but i really want to love apple. i do. i already love their advertising department and their designers…i want to become a devoted apple user…actually nope i like the way i do things now…when i need to i will use apple products but for the most i avoid them with a huge yardstick. i’m hoping this new apple tablet will convert me from my non alliances with tech companies so i can become a single product consumer.
Only 34? I have a free ap called mdict on my phone which has the entire wikipedia from may of 09 in mdx format on my storage card. Without a data or wifi connect I can load it up and see ~70 references to the word “fuck”.
Ap and the jumbo wiki is totally free.
BAN apple BAN!!
I had this happen with my Chinese dictionary quite a few months ago. I just pulled the app from the appstore because it’s simply ridiculous.
http://xiaocidian.com/2009/04/19/release-132-has-been-appstore-rejected/
The dictionary.com app on the app store still does curse words – why is that?
hey no knocking dictionary.com. i love them. they are legit. is your chinese dictionary legit and google/viewer certified.
this whole apps approval process must not be based on popularity, because if it was i would be shocked…lmao.i think apple is encouraging innovation and encouraging developers to keep at it…i mean developers could come up with the next apple.
don’t give little kids IPHONES, let alone cellphones. PROBLEM SOLVED.
what problem solved. that whole ratings specifications is a little stupid. there’s a law here that forbids convenience/corner stores from selling smokes or drinks to kids yet i see lots of kids smoking and drinking. i just want to know what mommy/parental brigade has gotten to apple’s nuts cause this is bullshit. i mean when i wanted to know the meaning of some of the stuff i heard adults talking about around me or on tv i hit up my best friend the world book dictionary. i think it’s been noted many times that all those words can be found in one dictionary or another. i think this is less about the dictionary and more about what goes into this whole regulation process.
Ha, wonder whats up with http://www.bumbunnies.com for the iPhone
I’m surprised noone has brought up another possibility. We’ve all worked in the real world. What probably happened is some App approver let some “questionable” content through that offended someone in the bible belt or some other place noone gives a shit about. Management came down on the App approvers. Probably a shitload of post-mortem meetings. Now they have to be retards and ban everything. It’s just easier to block/NC17 everything than make a real world, reasonable call. Especially when your arse/job is on the line.
The pendulum has swung from too permissive to too restrictive. Same thing could happen in every office in America.
One thing is certain, you can be assured that Apple is not paying developer wages to people who are accepting/rejecting iPhone apps. These are probably temp recruits who wouldn’t know the difference between a bit or a byte and who think that “binary” refers somehow to a purchase. And another monkey pushes a button…
I just realized my italian dictionary app doesn’t include any of the 7 bad words. Fuck you apple. What good is a foreign dictionary if it doesn’t teach you how to swear? Anyone got a quick list in italian?
I’m offended that Apple allowed itself into the App Store. Apple as we all know is a fruit that Eve bit into (according to some book). That led to the eviction of her and her boyfriend and spawned a scandalous series of sexual escapades that resulted in people…oh and Sodom(y). In my mind, if the word “apple” is in a product name, they’re selling sex so they need to limit access to adults over 17 (in most states) for any product with this word in it or if, you know, a company might have that word in it’s name…somewhere…
Great story John, especially your description of the acceptance team.
Squirrel!
Apple is making me mad! Have they teamed up with Ayatollahs to become virtue police????
*sigh*.. For how long will the iPhone platform be relevant?
I never bought my first iPhone, preferring to use my iPod touch to listen to music and try out applications and stuff. As I’ve slowly migrated more and more of my daily life (economics, todo-lists, shopping lists, games, etc…) to the Touch I’ve decided to take the leap and buy a 3GS (gps!). Given the last couple of months application mess I’m actually more interested in the Android platform but there are currently no A-phones good enough yet. I will probably end up buying the 3GS (if the Spotify app is approved) but in two years time when my contract finally ends I hope that the Android platform has matured enough as it is positioned to blast past this locked in kiddy-sandbox.
I actually sent the following email to sjobs@apple.com:
“Seriously, you ban “objectionable” words from dictionaries, and put on a 17+ label? You should think about your reputation. Apple is starting to smell, and people are taking notice.
http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/ninjawords
Regards,
XXXXX”
I got this response:
“This article is very inaccurate and untrue.
Steve
Sent from my iPhone”
I don’t make this up (probably not Steve responding either, but def someone at Apple).
Don’t know what that’s supposed to mean, but I assume we have another case of an overzealous employee.
What a fucking load of bastard bollocks!
Guys, c’mon. You seem to be mistaking Apple with other companies. This is not a democracy. Its a dictatorship.
In a world of Apple. They own you.