Apple is censoring engraving services in China

Apple is providing a free engraving service to users who order from official stores such as AirPods and iPads. A report has been published that points to political censorship in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan for the service.

The report was investigated and published by Citizen Lab, an Internet monitoring group at the University of Toronto. Citizen Lab is not anti-Chinese, stating that there is no evidence that the Chinese app TikTok is engaging in malicious activities.

Apple’s free engraving service bans offensive words and phrases in any region, and you can’t enter 170 words even in the US. However, in China, there are more than 1,000 banned words and phrases, including many political references.

Citizen Lab conducted a test to see whether a word was rejected or not. Apple’s engraving site analyzes the entered text character by character and flags unacceptable content immediately. The tests were conducted in six regions, and the results revealed that Apple was using different APIs to validate text in different countries. Political censorship is practiced in China, some in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

First, extensive references to Chinese leaders and political systems in mainland China, dissident and independent media titles, and general terms on religion and democracy and human rights are reported to be censored. For example, in political matters, such as politics, democracy, and human rights, and in Tibet, the Dalai Lama and the like.

Also, keywords for Hong Kong citizens’ collective actions are being censored extensively. For example, the freedom of the press and even names such as the wife of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo are banned, far exceeding Apple’s censorship obligations under the Hong Kong National Security Law.

It is said that there is a political humility in Taiwan as well as considering China. Chinese Communist Party officials, historical figures, and state institutions such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are also prohibited here. In Taiwan, there is no law to crack down on such words, and there is no legal obligation for Apple to censor it.

Moreover, Citizen Lab found that the number was censored even as high as 8964. This number is believed to be due to China’s recognition of the Tiananmen incident as being associated with the date of June 4, 1989.

Apple is only a private company and has a duty to comply with local laws, and Citizen Lab is not criticizing censorship of words prohibited by law. The problem is that Apple does more than what is legally required and seems useful without considering the keywords that local companies are self-sufficient in. It is unclear whether this has anything to do with this case, but once you enter Taiwan in iOS 11.4.1, certain language and region settings conflict on the iPhone. In addition, there are concerns that Apple’s recently introduced child abuse policy that allows photos stored in iCloud to be automatically scanned and notified to the authorities may be used for government censorship. Related information can be found here.