{"id":22481,"date":"2012-09-28T11:07:24","date_gmt":"2012-09-28T07:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=22481"},"modified":"2012-09-28T11:08:28","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T07:08:28","slug":"the-corporate-conservative-apple-rejects-drone-strike-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/technology-in-the-middle-east\/the-corporate-conservative-apple-rejects-drone-strike-app\/","title":{"rendered":"A Corporate Conservative: Apple’s No to Drone Strike App"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An app that uses\u00a0the Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s covert war data<\/a>\u00a0to alert people to the far reaches of the US government\u2019s secret wars has been blocked from Apple\u2019s app store.<\/p>\n

Drones+, the creation of NYU student Josh Begley, was meant to be a simple way of notifying users whenever US drones struck somewhere in the world.<\/p>\n

But Apple decided this was not acceptable for its customers. After rejecting the app on the grounds of its design and functionality, the US tech giant finally took exception to its content.<\/p>\n

In correspondence seen by the Bureau, the US tech giant told Begley that apps that \u2018present excessively objectionable or crude content will be rejected.\u2019<\/p>\n

The company added: \u2018We found that your app contains content that many audiences would find objectionable.\u2019<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s decision did not come as a surprise to Begley. \u2018I think their position is often just they don\u2019t want to let anything through that could be seen by anyone at any particular table that could be seen as controversial,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

But how its content could have been objectionable or crude for a user is difficult to fathom.<\/p>\n

A basic app, Drones+ was simply a news feed summarising each entry\u00a0from the Bureau\u2019s databases<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0a map of the drone strikes<\/a>. Each time a drone hits a village in Waziristan, a message would ping straight to the user\u2019s handset to let them know.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Inane nudges<\/strong><\/p>\n

The project began with a simple question about what smartphone users like to be notified about.<\/p>\n

Begley wondered if US smartphone users would want to be told about something more challenging than \u2018the sort of inane nudges you get when it\u2019s your turn to play Words With Friends.\u2019<\/p>\n

He presumed not. But Apple, who could not be reached for comment on this story before publication, has made sure he will never know.<\/p>\n

Following their latest rejection Begley is abandoning the Apple app idea. He is thinking about producing a version for the rival Android system instead.<\/p>\n

But iphone users were of specific interest to Begley. Having schooled himself on the extent of the US drone programme, he says he wanted to push the drone debate \u2018into corners where it hasn\u2019t been discussed.\u2019<\/p>\n

Smartphone users more interested in the nuts and bolts of technology may go for an Android phone, he explains. Apple\u2019s products appeal to a different crowd.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think people who use iphones like them because \u201cthey just work,\u201d\u2019 he says. \u2018Part of the reason they just work is because Apple is either very vigilant or diligent\u2026to shape and control every aspect of the experience.\u2019<\/p>\n

Thanks to a handful of high profile leaks, US drones are getting some attention. But Begley believes there is a limit to how much people understand, himself included.\u00a0Before starting to make the app, \u2018I had a general sense of hidden drone wars but never actually had a granular understanding,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n

From the start of the project one line of the\u00a0drones debate grabbed his attention.\u00a0\u2018When I started thinking about the app I actually didn\u2019t know about the Bureau\u2019s data sets,\u2019 he explains. \u2018I was considering using New America Foundation\u2019s data.\u2019<\/p>\n

But as the accuracy of New America Foundation\u2019s data was\u00a0challenged in the media<\/a>, Begley turned to the Bureau. \u2018In light of recent questions of their under reporting, and their\u00a0potentially severe under reporting<\/a>, it just made sense to use the best data set around.\u2019<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it just isn\u2019t coming soon to an Apple Store near you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TBIJ: In correspondence seen by the Bureau, the US tech giant told Begley that apps that \u2018present excessively objectionable or crude content will be rejected.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1255,"featured_media":22482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,63,9],"tags":[1229,855,1603,1228,6932,1975,14525,18302,2738],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22481"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1255"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}