Apple’s techno-prudes need a sense of humor

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

No, I don’t think Steve Jobs is evil. Nor do I think the iPad OS and app store are going to result in a walled-off Internet. But if Apple wants to leverage its brilliantly-designed devices to wield more influence over web navigation and content, and make money from it, it’s going to have to loosen up and recognize some realities. Starting with the existence of satire.

This week, cartoonist and animator Mark Fiore won a Pulitzer Prize for the animated political cartoons he does for the San Francisco Chronicle’s website. Neiman Lab’s Laura McGann reports that Apple rejected cartoonist Mark Fiore’s proposed iPhone app last December – not the first time it’s kicked a political cartoonist to the curb. Here’s the relevant graphs from the letter he got:

Dear Mr. Fiore,

Thank you for submitting NewsToons to the App Store. We’ve reviewed NewsToons and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store because it contains content that ridicules public figures and is in violation of Section 3.3.14 from the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement which states:

“Applications may be rejected if they contain content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, sounds, etc.) that in Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable, for example, materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory.” Examples of such content have been attached for your reference.

The examples include a clip of the White House gate crashers interrupting an Obama appearance. My question is, wha…? I concede this is ridicule. Of an extremely mild sort. I don’t see how it can be legally “defamatory.” It’s obviously satirical.

This is where the rubber meets the road on technology, the Internet and free expression. The iPhone and iPad are still niche products, but clearly Apple is hoping, and planning for, these devices and their apps to have a transformational impact on the Internet culture, and culture in general. But this is the 21st century. Pop culture is messy, obnoxious, offensive, satirical, and the web more so. Has Apple never heard of The Daily Show? Or, for that matter, Fox News? With banking and auto manufacturing on the ropes, ridiculing public figures may now be our number one industry.

Of course, you can still surf the web on your Apple device and get your satire and edgy stuff that way. But the app/touchscreen combination is what makes the iPhone and iPad such versatile, revolutionary devices. If you have, essentially, a bunch of techno-prudes filtering out “offensive” content for legal and/or arbitrary reasons – if you can’t make fun of the president in your iPhone or iPad app – Apple is never going to be the mass-culture titan it imagines itself to be.