Apple iPhone Censorship
by Jerome Armstrong, Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 07:40:39 AM EDT
Wow, Apple has thin skin:
Apple Imposes NDA For App Store Rejections
If you're a developer and Apple rejects your iPhone application from its App Store, the company wants you to shut up and get over it.
Apple's serious about it: The company has extended the iPhone non-disclosure agreement, which prohibits application developers from discussing programming tips, to include rejection letters as well. Some developers in the past have shared their rejection letters on the web, but now, according to MacRumors, rejection letters include a clause that reads, "THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NON-DISCLOSURE."
WSG worked with Chelsea Green through a developer to bring Howard Dean's book on healthcare reform to the iPhone app store. The app is not just a book, but also an action kit-- the sort of ground-breaking thing that Howard Dean is so well known for letting his internet team run with innovating.
Unfortunately, Apple just squashed our roll-out plans. I have thought it was just plain incompetence of Apple that Howard Dean's iphone app (the book and Action kit) was being delayed for more than two months (with no reason why given). I resisted the thought that it was some sort of political delay by Apple. Well, now I have to wonder, check this out:
Apple Denied Health Care App for Political Reasons
Red Daly, a 22 year-old computer science grad student at Stanford, submitted his iSinglePayer iPhone app for Apple's approval on Aug. 21. A little more than a month later Apple rejected it on the grounds of its content, Daly told Wired.com.
This really makes me wonder what is going on with Apple and this sort of censorship. Here's more:
Apple's preference for the establishment annoys Daly.
"I feel like politicians already have a megaphone and Apple is making it worse instead of making it easier for a regular guy to get an application into the store," Daly said.
Apple did not reply to a request for comment.
Daly, who has successfully submitted other apps such as Quiz Tunes, suspected something was off when he did not get an answer from Apple quickly.
Then on Saturday morning, Daly got a call from an Apple employee who identified himself as Richard, who told him verbally that his app had been rejected. When Daly asked if there was anything he could do to make it less politically charged, Richard replied that the problem was the app was politically charged.
Now, as I mentioned above, Apple gave us no reason for the multi-month delay of the launch, so the above is speculation of what's happening with their policy of political censorship through the app store.
But of course, who knows, because:
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