[Foundation-l] Is Apple censoring Wiktionary?

[Michael Snow]

Techman224 wrote:
> http://www.macworld.com/article/142148/2009/08/ninjawords_schiller.html?lsrc=twt_macworld
>
> I found this news article on Macworld that Phil Schiller contacted the  
> developer of the Ninjawords dictionary app for the iPhone/iPod Touch.  
> He said that the application was blocked because the app pulled the  
> information from Wiktionary, which he says it contains offensive  
> "urban slang" terns that traditional dictionaries (like paper) don't  
> have. He said that putting a 17+ rating would be all that he needed to  
> do. So I starting to wonder if Apple is starting to censor apps that  
> can access "offensive" words, not just Wiktionary, but all of the  
> Wikimedia Foundation projects.
>   
This sort of stuff has been circulating for several weeks, and my 
understanding is that it's a general policy Apple's app store is 
applying to all unfiltered internet content. So there have been reports 
involving Wikipedia apps as well, but also plenty of others that have 
nothing to do with us. What Apple chooses to do in this regard is its 
business, I would think, and how developers and consumers respond to 
that is their business. So I won't presume to express an opinion right 
now on how Apple should run its business, or whether anybody should do 
business with them.

--Michael Snow