Apple Blocks "Obscene" Newsreader App

Feb 13, 2008
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Apple Blocks "Obscene" Newsreader App


Apple has banned a new iPhone newspaper reading application after it was found to contain "obscene content": Page 3 of The Sun.

Newspaper, an application that brings content from worldwide papers to your iPhone, has been pushed back to OS 3.0, at which point there will be a suitable category for "that sort of thing". Namely, topless ladies.

To those not familiar with The Sun, it's one of the delightful English tabloids that give "the working man" the news in bite-sized chunks, and throws in pictures of half-dressed men (page 7) and women (page 3).

The Sun has always prided itself on being "a family paper" and accusations of pornography are not likely to sit well with proprietor Rupert Murdoch, especially as, based on circulation, it is the eighth biggest newspaper in any language in the world.

While I can sort of see where Apple is coming from on this, it seems a little harsh when the iPhone can just take a picture of the page in question. Especially when you have Mass Effect [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/91333-Mass-Effect-Hits-iPhone], Prey [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/89314-3D-Realms-Prey-Heading-to-iPhone] or Wolfenstein 3D [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90461] all waiting to be ogled by impressionable youngsters.

Given the paper's usual content though, I think the pictures are possibly the least [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_disaster#The_Sun_newspaper_controversy] objectionable [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_The_Sun_Wot_Won_It] part [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotcha_(headline)#Jingoism] of The Sun.

Source: The Register [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/05/sun_itunes_obscene/]


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HobbesMkii

Hold Me Closer Tony Danza
Jun 7, 2008
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You misspelled "Keeley" in the caption. Er... not that I follow that sort of thing...dang. Guess I sorta showed my hand there.

Its interesting... Are you allowed to visit websites that contain "obscene content?" Because if the iPhone browser will allow it, what the hell are they doing blocking apps?
 

Cousin_IT

New member
Feb 6, 2008
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anything that means people cant read The Sun can only be seen as a good thing tbh
 

Yog Sothoth

Elite Member
Dec 6, 2008
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Mass Effect for the iPhone? I heard on Fox News that that game is digital pornography....
 

Andy_Panthro

Man of Science
May 3, 2009
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I wish nothing but ruin for the sun, it shouldn't be allowed to call itself a newspaper. It's popularity in my country makes me look at my fellow citizens and say "Why?"
 

LeonLethality

New member
Mar 10, 2009
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Cousin_IT said:
anything that means people cant read The Sun can only be seen as a good thing tbh
I agree with the stalin-dog

The sun if f**ked up in my city too I stopped reading it a while back
 

Johnn Johnston

New member
May 4, 2008
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Andy_Panthro said:
I wish nothing but ruin for the sun, it shouldn't be allowed to call itself a newspaper. It's popularity in my country makes me look at my fellow citizens and say "Why?"
It's more textured bog roll than it is a newspaper.