Stupid App Store Decision of the Week – Dictionary App Censored

Just when Apple makes one fairly positive App Store move, then they hit us with another decision that clearly shows how ridiculous and badly broken the reviews non-process is. This decision is right up there in the Top 5 (easily) most incomprehensible App Store decisions ever. 

They ‘ve censored a dictionary app, called Ninjawords. For containing ‘objectionable ‘ words that ALL dictionaries contain “ and to put a little icing on the cake, they ‘ve still branded the app with a 17+ rating even after the developers filtered out a number of words Apple objected to.

The excellent Daring Fireball has the whole very pathetic story, but here ‘s just a little slice of it:

But Ninjawords for iPhone suffers one humiliating flaw: it omits all the words deemed ‘objectionable ‘ by Apple ‘s App Store reviewers, despite the fact that Ninjawords carries a 17+ rating.

Apple censored an English dictionary.

A dictionary. A reference book. For words contained in all reasonable dictionaries. For words contained in dictionaries that are used every day in elementary school libraries and classrooms.

And a point of comparison:

Even Walmart, notorious for its censorship of ‘objectionable ‘ music and movies, neither restricts nor places warning labels on dictionaries.

Here ‘s another example of how dumb this decision is:

The list of omitted words includes some which have utterly non-objectionable senses: ass, snatch, pussy, cock, and even screw. (Ass and cock appear throughout the King James Bible.)

Daring Fireball ‘s Jon Gruber offers a perfect sum-up of what this decision means:

Apple requires you to be 17 years or older to purchase a censored dictionary that omits half the words Steve Jobs uses every day.

Check out the whole horrible story “ including details of an interview with the developer of Ninjawords “ at Daring Fireball HERE.