Apple Bans Game App That Criticizes Smartphone Production

An anonymous reader sends word that Apple has removed from the App Store a game called Phone Story, which walks players through the creation of a smartphone, highlighting many of the negative aspects. There are four brief stages: running a mining facility in the Congo, saving suicidal factory workers, handing out phones to oblivious consumers, and generating e-waste through planned obsolescence. Apple said Phone Story violated sections 15.2, 16.1, 21.1, and 21.2 of the App Store guidelines, which make reference to "objectionable or crude content" and "offensive or mean-spirited commentary." A short video of the game has been posted at Kotaku.

Comments

Why am I so surprised :)

[youn]

apple has always been acting very nice to criticism so far, never threatening to sue commentaries it did not like... this is so out of character :)

Re:Why am I so surprised :)

[Nasajin]

Clauses 15.2 and 16.1 (15.2 Apps that depict violence or abuse of children will be rejected, 16.1 Apps that present excessively objectionable or crude content will be rejected) are not being contested by Molleindustria, rather they are contesting points 21.1 and 21.2, which refer to in-app donation collection methods. The response from game studio is as follows:

We are currently considering two steps:

* Produce a new version of Phone Story that depicts the violence and abuse of children involved in the electronic manufacturing supply chain in a non-crude and non-objectionable way.

* Release a version for the Android market and jailbroken ios devices.

From the publisher's website. http://phonestory.org/banned.html

Re:Why am I so surprised :)

[bky1701]

Oh, but the independent, trendy vanguard of the people that is Apple would never attempt to do anything bad! Why, whatever they do has to be good; for, simply their doing it makes it good!

Hark! I hear now many rushing to justify Apple, by quoting other worse companies, or such by ingenious logical methods as to perplex lesser men entirely. Surely, this is simply another reason that Apple is the great organization that it is!

Re:Why am I so surprised :)

[danish94]

But you forget that android's marketplace is NOT the only legal way to buy and sell apps. even if google rejects the game, the developers can still just send a link to download the game (you know, like normal software) or publish it at amazon's appstore. If you are rejected by apple you're only way to share the game is to jailbroken devices. That's why ios is a walled garden, and android is not. (I am talking about the censorship part. slave labor and outsourcing is done by everyone)

No win, really

[Jiro]

Allowing the application will reflect negatively on Apple just as much as censoring it (and not for reasons having to do with whether the criticism has substance). I can just imagine the headlines: "Apple is so dumb they will sell you the rope you can hang them with".

Re:No win, really

[Eudial]

If you censor criticism, you're not merely losing the moral high ground, you're also validating the criticism (after all, why would you censor something if it wasn't true?) as well as giving it publicity (see the Streisand effect.)

The correct thing to do is to face the criticism. If they are wrong, then you prove it (tour of the facilities maybe?). If they've unearthed something wrong, then you publicly apologize and fix that. Under no circumstances try to weasel out through semantic loopholes or by putting down straw men.

Apple/Scientology?

[therufus]

I've always jokingly called apple the "Cult of Macintology", but now it's even more obvious. The cult of $cientology sue people when they don't like what they're saying, Apple also take action (by the sole means they can) by killing off criticism.

Can anyone say Streisand effect?

Giggles

[Billly Gates]

Goes back on his Android.

Re:It fun to poke at Apple

[xstonedogx]

...it get rid of the obvious garbage.

I'm in tears, here.

Re:It fun to poke at Apple

[Osgeld]

lol yea sure it does

http://ifartmobile.com/

there is a mission critical app that does not in any way constitute garbage

It fun to out verb

[BlueScreenO'Life]

It fun to out verb.

To, or not to. That the question.