The recent tragedy in South Carolina has brought questions of the Confederate flag being used on government buildings and other placaes that it might be offensive. Personally, I agree with the critics that it was wildly inappropriate for the US flag to be flown at half mast out of respect for the lives lost while the Confederate one was not lowered. In response to the tragedy, a number of retailers have decide to stop selling memorobilia with the flag on it and the flags themseleves. One unlikely follower in this trend was Apple with their App Store.
Apple has decided to begin enforcing rule 19.1: “Apps containing references or commentary about a religious, cultural or ethnic group that are defamatory, offensive, mean-spirited or likely to expose the targeted group to harm or violence will be rejected”. Basically, they are asserting that the Confederate flag is inherently damaging. The issue is that many of the apps in question are games that focus on the historical aspects of the Civil War. I persnally find this to be a gross over-application of that rule but even if you agree with teh decision, there is a wider issue at play that shoud be of concerned to every developer working on Apple’s platfoms.
Apple is no longer shy about using its absolute power over the App Store to enforce what might be considered its own preferences / world view. This is well beyond just protecting users from poorly coded apps or security flaws in third-party software. Apple is now enforcing their tastes and mores on every iOS user and (more frightenly) every iOS developer.
It’s been a long time coming but I think this is the last straw for me in terms of control from Apple. I just can’t justify having so much of my life and livelyhood be based on a platform whose owner has no issue with enforces their mores on its users and developer community.
