26.May.2010 Freedom from The Gay

A few examples of Apple’s overreach in editing apps for its store. A few months back Gawker posted “Apple Rejects Gay-Sightseeing App Over Gay Sights“:

It’s possible to have a reasonable argument over whether Apple is neutering “Gay New York” because it’s homophobic, because it is really bad at running an app store, or because it is simply exercising its God-given right to try and create the world’s blandest digital marketplace. But whichever side you come down on, it’s awfully hard to escape the conclusion that Apple is increasingly functioning not just as an arbiter of technology but of culture itself. And that is frightening.

Another via L.Wynholds. In this example Charles “Zan” Christensen writes “iPad Publishing No Savior for Small Press, LGBT Comics Creators” He describes the removal of several realtively mild gay-themed, indie works from Apple’s App Store for reasons that are inconsistent:

Tom Bouden’s adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest was rejected as an iPad app for the App Store, again due to “materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory.” A handful of sexually suggestive images depicting men, some extremely mild, were specifically flagged as problematic in the 80-page graphic novel.

The app was rated 17+ from the beginning but that didn’t seem to make a difference,” said Peter Bonte, the publisher. Bonte resubmitted the app, this time with large black boxes almost completely covering the “offending” panels, but the app was rejected again; perhaps to avoid calling attention to its restrictions, Apple did not allow black censor bars to appear in content.