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Science & Technology
Apple blocks app that reports deaths from drone-zaps
2012-11-14
Software giant Apple has blocked an app that would notify subscribers every time a US drone carried out a deadly mission on the grounds that it is "objectionable and crude", according to the program's designer.

Josh Begley, a graduate student at New York University, developed Drones+ to provide up-to-date information on strikes, using reports collated by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism – an organisation that tracks the use of unmanned CIA aircrafts.
We at Rantburg could certainly find uses for this...
But repeated attempts to get Apple to offer the software at its app store have been fruitless. At first, Begley was informed that the program – which he hoped would raise awareness of the growing death toll from drone strikes – was "not useful" enough and did not appeal to a "broad enough audience".

The company position has since shifted, but only in the reasoning behind its refusal to stock Drones+.

In the latest rejection email, Apple reportedly informed him: "We found that your app contains content that many audiences would find objectionable, which is not in compliance with the app store review guidelines."

A video demonstration of Drones+ shows that the app is designed to flash up an alert when a new strike is reported, with details of how many people were killed. An interactive map shows subscribers where the air assault took place and how many others had taken place near it.

Begley, 27, told the Guardian that he didn't expect the app to be wildly popular, but hoped it would raise awareness. He added: "I built it because it is something I would like to use myself".

Figures from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism show that drones struck Pakistan 75 times in 2011, causing up to 655 fatalities.

The majority of those killed were terrorists alleged militants, but as many as 126 camp followers civilians may have also lost their lives in last year's attacks, the bureau's figures reveal.

Begley's app does not link to any graphic images of drone attacks, but reveals information about their existence. Even so, Apple looks unlikely to sanction the app, having come down against it on three separate occasions.

It has left the software developer looking elsewhere as he plans to take the software forward. "The plan now is to try and develop it for Android," he said.
With in-line advertising. In a drone-zap application. Oh, the possibilities...
Apple did not return the Guardian's request for comment.
Posted by:Steve White

#3  BIJ
Posted by: Skidmark   2012-11-14 14:40  

#2  It would seem that this info would be classified. Probably very generic info could be released. Sometimes I've got to scratch my head. The left wing got all bent out of shape about waterboarding and Abu Ghraib but drone-zapping is O.K.

WaterGate and the Valerie Plame brouhaha were kept going by the Donks for a long time. Beghazhi doesn't seem to get much attention from the lame streamers. I guess it all depends on who is doing things. Hypocrisy reigns supreme in the party of the donkeys.
Posted by: JohnQC   2012-11-14 13:19  

#1  Apple has blocked an app that would notify subscribers every time a US drone carried out a deadly mission on the grounds that it is "objectionable and crude"

Releasing the info would be "objectionable and crude" or drone-zapping and checking these buggers off the kill list would be? The article is unclear about this. What is the general bias of Apple politics? Very liberal/left would be my guess.
Posted by: JohnQC   2012-11-14 13:10  

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