Apple Censors App That Tracks Drone Strikes, Calling It 'Objectionable Content'

What's the real reason behind this block?

Zaid Jilani is an AlterNet staff writer. Follow @zaidjilani on Twitter.

The Apple App Store over the weekend removed Metadata+, an app developed by The Intercept research editor Josh Begley, giving the standard message that the program featured “excessively crude or objectionable content.” (The following image is from Begley's Twitter project, @dronestream.)

While you'd expect an app to be banned for featuring ultra-violent or pornographic content, all this one did was list data and location of drone strikes as well as name the victims, offering notifications each time a new one occurred.

The removal of the program seems to signal that the App Store does not view basic details about the wars we are involved in as matters of public information, but rather content that is too profane for the delicate sensibilities of its users.

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/apple-censors-app-tracks-drone-strikes-calling-it-objectionable-content