Apple pulls drone strike app
Apple doesn't want you to know when a U.S. drone kills someone:
It seemed like a simple enough idea for an iPhone app: Send users a pop-up notice whenever a flying robots kills someone in one of Americaâ??s many undeclared wars. But Apple keeps blocking the Drones+ program from its App Store â?? and therefore, from iPhones everywhere. The Cupertino company says the content is â??objectionable and crude,â? according to Appleâ??s latest rejection letter.Itâ??s the third time in a month that Apple has turned Drones+ away, says Josh Begley, the programâ??s New York-based developer. The companyâ??s reasons for keeping the program out of the App Store keep shifting. First, Apple called the bare-bones application that aggregates news of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia â??not useful.â? Then there was an issue with hiding a corporate logo. And now, thereâ??s this crude content problem.
Begley is confused. Drones+ doesnâ??t present grisly images of corpses left in the aftermath of the strikes. It just tells users when a strike has occurred, going off a publicly available database of strikes compiled by the U.K.â??s Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which compiles media accounts of the strikes.
