Posted on 06/25/2015 11:16:29 PM PDT by Swordmaker
A couple of days ago, I wrote about the difficulties Apple would face if it tried to censor the Confederate flag in its online stores. Unfortunately, the company - under Tim Cook's leadership - wasted no time in engaging in reactionary censorship of the Confederate flag in its app store.
Touch Arcade and other sites are reporting that Apple has begun a ham-handed purge of the app store. The company has removed games and apps that include the Confederate flag:
It's looking like Apple has pulled everything from the App Store that features a Confederate flag, regardless of context. The reasoning Apple is sending developers is "...because it includes images of the confederate flag used in offensive and mean-spirited ways."
We just received a statement from Maxim Zasov of Game Labs, the developers of Ultimate General: Gettysburg. It is as follows:
We accept Apple's decision and understand that this is a sensitive issue for the American Nation. We wanted our game to be the most accurate, historical, playable reference of the Battle of Gettysburg. All historical commanders, unit composition and weaponry, key geographical locations to the smallest streams or farms are recreated in our game's battlefield.
We receive a lot of letters of gratitude from American teachers who use our game in history curriculum to let kids experience one of the most important battles in American history from the Commander's perspective.
Spielberg’s "Schindler's List" did not try to amend his movie to look more comfortable. The historical "Gettysburg" movie (1993) is still on iTunes. We believe that all historical art forms: books, movies, or games such as ours, help to learn and understand history, depicting events as they were. True stories are more important to us than money.
Therefore we are not going to amend the game's content and Ultimate General: Gettysburg will no longer be available on AppStore. We really hope that Apple’s decision will achieve the desired results. We can’t change history, but we can change the future.>[?
Ultimate General: Gettysburg wasn't alone in focusing on tasteful, historical accuracy. The vast majority of the Civil War strategy games I've played on my iPad put massive amounts of emphasis on focusing on the historical significance of the battles, units, locations, and generals included. We've also heard that these types of games have been used as teaching tools, making their removal from the App Store feel that much more reactionary. — More at Touch Arcade.
Apple's Orwellian censorship of the Confederate flag is a big mistake
While I suspected something like this would happen, it still shocked me to find out that Apple would engage in this kind of overt censorship of history. The company appears to have made no distinction for apps that are educational in nature and that have proven to assist teachers in educating students about the Civil War.
I think this is a terrible mistake on Apple's part. It demonstrates short-term, reactionary thinking and casts a deep chill of heavy-handed censorship over Apple's app store. This is one of those situations where the solution ends up being far worse than the problem.
I suspect that Apple is probably going to face a consumer and possibly a developer backlash against this kind of censorship. If you care to share your thoughts with Apple, you can send Tim Cook an email. I doubt it will do much good, but at least he'll know that some folks don't support this kind of censorship of history by Apple.
Currently you can still buy the Dukes of Hazzard in the iTunes store. But how long until Apple removes it because of the Confederate flag? Will the iTunes and iBooks stores be censored next by Apple?
I'm wondering now if the iBooks store will be hit next by a mass purge of Confederate flags by Apple? It will be interesting to see if books that use the Confederate flag on their cover or that include it as an image will suddenly start disappearing from the iBooks store.
And let's not forget about the iTunes store. Currently you can get every season of the Dukes of Hazzard in the iTunes store. But how long until Apple begins a mass purge of television shows and movies that contain Confederate flags? If Apple is going to be consistent in its censorship then there's no way it can allow such material to be sold in its iTunes store.
And what about the films or TV shows that might contain content that Apple deems to be "too sympathetic" to the Confederacy? Will the company remove them too even if they don't contain images of the Confederate flag? We'll have to wait and see, but I'm not optimistic about Apple being able to control its authoritarian impulses.
Tim Cook is taking Apple down a dark and dangerous road
I think that Tim Cook has let his personal politics get the better of his judgement, and he has sent Apple spinning down into the abyss of intellectual censorship. Purging the app store of the Confederate flag may unfortunately be just the beginning of a dark period of political madness in Apple's history.
I very much hope I'm wrong about that, but Apple's heavy-handed censorship of the Confederate flag doesn't give me much confidence in the company's future commitment to intellectual freedom and historical accuracy. It may fall to Apple's board of directors to intervene and correct the company's overzealous efforts to censor what its customers can see and buy.
Apple is indeed going down a very dangerous and scary road. Where will it end?
Since the Federal government has demonstrated itself willing and able to use the IRS as a politically punitive entity, the Federal government - whether one has a small business or large business – is willing and able by threat of the same to restrict what your business may sell, what the marketplace may purchase, indeed, what the citizens may think or speak. It follows that large businesses like Amazon.com or Apple would comply with a demand (or even a polite request) to remove the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia from its menu while retaining Communist kitsch. This is not the kind of freedom envisioned by our forefathers.
The fact that much of our society is addicted to videographed drivel doesn't help either. Who needs books?
Fairly simple, they want conformity. The freeper who posted the quotes from Farenheit 451 hit the crux of the issue. The goal is to banish independent thought for the ultimate control of society. The communists did it various ways. The flag banners won't need to ban certain books because half the sheeple will self-censor. Not only that, they will ostracize those who do not self-censor. It already happens. Try being politically incorrect in a corporation some time.
The current method of enforcing conformity is demonization (e.g. of the Confederate flag). Having succeeded they can demonize anything else they want by associating it with the slaughter of innocents as was the case in Charleston. Christians are not far down on their target list even though Christians were slaughtered. Don't be surprised if the next "right wing" wacko is ID'd as fundamentalist.
This is what happens when you vote for and support the democrat party; the party that created the confederacy and that flag. They are building political points while hiding and throwing out the symbols of their constant and historical attacks on the Constitution.
Does the company make a version of this "game" for the PC? Anyone know?
I need to get it.
I stopped buying anything Apple after their anti-Christian lobbying in Ohio. I could have taken the attack on Global Warming “deniers”, but that was a step too far. This episode just confirms in my mind that Apple has become a fascist company, and I want nothing to do with it despite my admiration for their products, and the fact that I still own a couple of them purchased quite a while ago.
What about one of my favorite moves of all time Glory?
Apple has always been a fascist company. Everything from their proprietary architecture to the restrictions of third party software and hardware prove this. Yes, it's better on the hardware side now but they have always tried to control every aspect of their systems.
this just in.
TIm Cook hit by falling Flagpole,....
details to follow
A libertarian/ conservative could make a killing starting an internet business to rival Amazon and that faux libertarian Bezos. Surprised that has not happened yet. The code is easy. The capital is a different matter but Amazon operates at a loss and if southerners stopped buying his crap he would be hurting.
It’s one thing to control your software and/or hardware. It’s another to play arbiter/censor of content.
No movies, music, or books have been pulled. Only Apps with the Stars and Bars in them. Not very sane at all. . . or even insane. Hypocritical is a good word.
What’s wrong with you, sm? You’ve been a massive supporter of all things Apple, claiming as long as they make a profit who cares what they say or do or what type of perverse cult they are trying to establish. But now you want to get on their case for the typical censorship you previously supported?
Everyone should read this book. It is so indicative of the age. He misses a few things, such as the fact that America is no longer an industrial power, and that people no longer even know their facts, but other than that, he is spot on.
I first read F451 in 5th grade when my memory was blazing and whole sentences would stay with me. The very first time I saw someone with a Bluetooth headset in their ear it was like someone slapped me. I thought right away of Mildred and her “seashells” in the ear. And then I thought of all the little headsets people had been walking around with for years...
Then when FB came in and people spend hours talking to walls rather than reading. Now people self-censoring so as to not be unlike others. The social pressure to not say or read anything out of the norm. To not say SO many words, make SO many jokes. SO much is off limits nowadays - there is so much control over the thoughts of people - so much self-censuring - it has gotten so out of control - now even history games and movies are being removed - and it is self-imposed! Just like Ray Bradbury said it would be.
People think F451 is about books. It’s not. It’s about self censorship imposed by a dysfunctional society. The books are just the symptom.
Montag: “Will you turn the parlour (interactive wall) off?” he asked.
Wife: “That’s my family.”
Apple will likely reinstate most of the pulled apps, with no changes:
I hope Apple learned something from this...
Those are all good points although technology is supposed to be neutral. The problem is that Facebook is not on our side, so even if their tech is neutral, their policies won't be.
Another difference from the book (although I last read it about 40 years ago), is that today's conformity is mated with a fake nonconformity like trans-gender, "alternative" marriage (it won't stay just gay for long), and other unnatural and deviant behaviors. That makes it even more insidious. It makes it look like nonconformity is ok, when the opposite is true, we must all conform to deviancy or the acceptance of deviancy. Maybe I need to find my copy and read it again.
Today noncomformity is conformity. I actually read an article a few weeks ago called, “Why do all hipsters look alike”?
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