Apple has always had a bit of a reputation as a “control freak” with its locked-in hardware and walled gardens, but it appears they have overreached even further now into the sphere of personal communication – Apple have been deleting outgoing emails sent from the MobileMe Webmail App that contains unacceptable words and phrases.
One recent example of this block is the following message that MobileMe user Ken Rosenblum tried to send to his mailing list:
The authoritarian Governments in Syria, Greece, Saudi Arabia and Yemen continue to oppress and massacre their own citizens. Their manipulative and combative attempts at controlling the media and their citizens are unethical and illegal. They continue to oppress its own citizens through beatings, harassment, jailing and killings.
Stop the oppression of innocent Arab People!!!
Take a stand against Authoritarian Oppressive Regimes!
Equal Rights to all people!
Something in that message switched on Apple’s filters, likely just spam filters in reality, and prevented the message being sent. Now such glitches are a regular issue for those sending messages to large groups of people, but others inform the user and/or sender that the email has not gone through. The Apple filters are silent – something Apple has since claimed is an extra spam prevention mechanism to keep the spammers in the dark, but is in reality is inherently anti-consumer. Apple even has a patent for censoring objectionable content sent via SMS. Apple would like to think that they always know best and that is why they have always run a closed platform, but I am not the only one that thinks such ideology should not interfere or censor with my personal communication, and certainly not by stealth.
[via Cult of Mac]