September 28th, 2009 / 9:00 am
Presses & Print Journals
Rotten Apple: There’s No App For That
In December 2008, Peter Cole, editor of Keyhole, thought it would be nice to develop an iPhone app for the magazine to broaden its reach. He hired a developer and they submitted the application to Apple. A few days later, the app was rejected by Apple for violating their standards. The story with which they had objections was Heather Fowler’s Catholic Girl Smile, a rather mild story under any circumstances and particularly when contrasted with many of Keyhole’s offerings. Peter shelved the idea.
When the iPhone 3.0 software was released, including Parental Controls, Peter decided to try again. He re-hired his developer to make the Keyhole App 3.0 compatible and add a few features. They resubmitted the app and it was rejected again.
Apple wrote:
Dear Keyhole Press,
Thank you for submitting Keyhole Magazine to the App Store. We’ve reviewed Keyhole Magazine and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store because it contains inappropriate sexual content and is in violation of Section 3.3.14 from the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement which states:
‘Applications may be rejected if they contain content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, sounds, etc.) that in Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable, for example, materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory.’
A screenshot of this issue has been attached for your reference.
If you believe that you can make the necessary changes so that Keyhole Magazine does not violate the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, we encourage you to do so and resubmit it for review.
Regards,
iPhone Developer Program
At this point Peter was pretty irate, having invested a great deal of time and money in this project. The censorship was particularly troubling given the range of potentially “objectionable” content available via iPhone apps not to mention that the iPhone includes a full web browser allowing users to access any site on the Internet. Their choice of drawing a line with regard to Heather’s story, which is PG-13 at best, is baffling to say the least.
Peter says:
I sent back a quick, angry email saying, I saw pictures of underage naked girls in one of your apps (there’s an app for that, apparently) and I didn’t even get an 17+ warning for that one. They have porn star apps. They have an app that lets you make boobs in pictures jiggle.
Peter then came up with a plan. He would unpublish Heather’s story for two weeks while the app went through the vetting process and then republish it after the app was approved. The problem is that many of the stories Keyhole publishes are far dirtier or more “objectionable” than Heather’s story. He is not optimistic that the Keyhole app will ever be approved because once he addresses the issue of Heather’s story there are many other stories the Apple Overlords will likely flag and he is unwilling to contact every author asking them for permission to temporarily unpublish their work nor should he have to.
As a fan of Apple products, I am extraordinarily disappointed by their conduct in this matter. For a company that markets itself as forward thinking, this is ass backwards behavior. Their arbitrary standards with regard to objectionable content are bewildering. Pornography (which I’m all for) is okay but literature is not? As Peter notes, “if parental controls and the 17+ warning aren’t good enough, then they’re saying that this type of writing is not suitable for any age.”
This issue is particularly timely and troubling given that it is Banned Book Week. Any time writing is censored intellectual freedom suffers.
The good news is that Heather and Peter are in good company.
Tags: app, Apple, censorship, developer, iPhone, Keyhole
wow. x1.5 million…..
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September 28th, 2009 / 9:10 amMichael James—
i actually have a similar issue. im staying at a federal compound where every literature site except Htmlgiant and ninth letter is blocked because it is considered “entertainment”….
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lame, Apple. very lame.
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Julianna Baggott’s been censored, too. Along racial lines.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/09/26/the_school_that_opted_out/
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September 28th, 2009 / 11:41 amRoxane Gay—
That is a real real shame. In this day and age, I would have thought we would be beyond this.
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the “cute japanese girls in bikinis” app is a lot worse.
not that i have a problem with the CJGIB app.
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Could you use an existing app such as Aldiko? They have a section for independent publishers, might be worth looking into.
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September 28th, 2009 / 11:43 amRoxane Gay—
That’s a great idea… a workaround.
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this was an interesting post
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there’s a lot of stuff censored by much more than apple iphone and it gets no press becuz its not p.c. like this story and much more substantial too. why not cover some of that? i know some modern authors are even banned from amazon.
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September 28th, 2009 / 11:22 amRoxane Gay—
Because I can’t be everything to everyone. This is what I felt like talking about today. You’re more than welcome to cover some of that.
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September 28th, 2009 / 12:00 pmNathan Tyree—
Who has been banned from amazon?
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Didn’t think Apple would have time between their busy schedule of making horrible hipster advertising campaigns and exploiting third world child workers to censor short stories… guess I was wrong.
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I’m a keen Apple user, but this story doesn’t surprise me, sadly. Since the iPhone apps store launched, there have been a lot of stories of individual apps being refused because of unsuitable content – for instance, a dictionary app that was banned because, well, it might feature unsavoury words (no shit, Sherlock) whereas other applications that any normal human being would think unsuitable have been let in. Such bizarre decisions have even prompted responses from senior people at Apple.
So while that’s no consolation to Keyhole, it’s certainly not a unique case.
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September 28th, 2009 / 11:42 amRoxane Gay—
This doesn’t surprise me. I’ll have to look into this a bit more at some point.
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I believe it may be unique since the addition of parental controls.
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That’s so ridiculous. I mean, there are apps that let you draw boobs on people’s pictures–but we can’t be adults and read adult stories? I guess “objectionable” content is okay as long as it’s something a thirteen-year-old boy would dream up.
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Heather Fowler’s new Facebook profile photo
via Word Riot
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why is this a surprise? Cock and tits is not scary in the same sense as literature. Obviously, the moral right will put the foot down on sex, sadly, but in the end it’s not a real threat.
Reading a powerful story can change the minds of millions.
They should submit the app to Gphone. Maybe better luck will be found?
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i’m scared.
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Thanks for this, Roxane. I just can’t believe that Peter even added parental controls and this is what they chose to censor? Crazy! I can see the point of possibly going through other providers, but don’t think Peter should be limited from using the bigs that are purportedly liberal and could acquire him greater audiences for KeyHole–when the premise of this censorship is ludicrous (and scary) if it is only a newly arisen harbinger of what will soon be done to other online journals/presses.
Alas, but at least the story now has an interesting second life. :)
All warmest to all,
Heather
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