However, more notable than the varying size of keyword lists is the different motivations driving Apple’s content moderation policies across these regions. Compared to its Chinese language filtering, we discovered fewer restrictions on Apple product engravings in Japan, Canada, and the United States. Where do we see the most restrictions? And what kind of words are most likely to be censored?Īmong the keyword filtering rules we discovered in the six regions we tested, the largest number applied to mainland China, where we found 1,045 keywords filtering product engravings, followed by Hong Kong, and then Taiwan.
However, while we draw upon a large test set of keywords to discover as many of Apple’s keyword filtering rules as possible, our method cannot provide an exhaustive list of which keywords Apple filters in each region, and so there are likely some filtering rules which we were unable to discover. Based on which engravings were filtered, we were able to systematically determine Apple’s keyword filtering rules. We automatically tested these keywords against the API endpoints that Apple’s online store uses to determine whether to filter an engraving. How was the study conducted? And what are its limitations?įrom previous work analyzing automated Internet censorship, we have amassed hundreds of thousands of keywords spanning numerous languages used to censor a variety of different Internet applications and platforms.
These names appear to have been copied from a list we found also used to censor products from a Chinese company. In one case, Apple censored ten Chinese names surnamed “Zhang” with generally unclear political significance.
We present evidence that Apple does not fully understand what content they censor and that, rather than each censored keyword being born of careful consideration, many seem to have been thoughtlessly reappropriated from other sources. Within mainland China, we found that Apple censors political content including broad references to Chinese leadership and China’s political system, names of dissidents and independent news organizations, and general terms relating to religions, democracy, and human rights and that part of this politically motivated censorship is applied to users in Hong Kong and Taiwan. We found that Apple’s content moderation practices pertaining to derogatory, racist, or sexual content are inconsistently applied across these regions. We analyzed Apple’s filtering of product engravings in six regions, discovering 1,105 keyword filtering rules used to moderate their content. What has your study of Apple engraving services revealed? In this post, we discuss the significance of the findings with report authors. On August 18, the Citizen Lab published an analysis of Apple product engraving services and observed censorship.
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