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Apple Censoring 'Jailbreak' in U.S. iTunes Store Listings [Update: Fixed]

Thursday May 17, 2012 8:21 am PDT by Eric Slivka
Exploring an observation initially made by iOS hacker @planetbeing, Shoutpedia notes that Apple has mysteriously begun censoring the word "jailbreak" in the U.S. iTunes Store. While not all mentions of the word are affected, the vast majority of them across all content types are currently being censored to "j*******k".


Apple has long objected to the jailbreaking process, which opens up iOS devices for installation of apps from non-Apple approved sources and other system tweaks. But it is unclear what the company is trying to achieve with its iTunes Store censoring, which affects such content as Thin Lizzy's song and album of that name and an episode of the The Roy Rogers Show from the early 1950s.


The censoring appears to only affect the U.S. iTunes Store at the present time, but it has been in effect for over eight hours now.

Update: The censoring appears to be inadvertent. Searches for 'jailbreak' on the Apple Store now return results without any asterisks.
[ 196 comments ]


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Sky Blue
85 months ago
Wow. That's pretty ridiculous. Will they censor the word android next?
Rating: 71 Votes
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AustinIllini
85 months ago


"Jailbreak doesn't even belong!"
Rating: 37 Votes
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buddda
85 months ago
This is going to garner some sweet free publicity for Thin Lizzy!
Rating: 26 Votes
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Tones2
85 months ago
My guess is that they probably meant to limit this is APPS but inadvertently applied the censor to music as well. Now I'm wondering about movies and TV.

Tony
Rating: 25 Votes
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HarryKeogh
85 months ago
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that executives at Apple did not sit around a table and say "let's remove every instance of the word "jailbreak" from the Apple store including classic songs because that makes perfect sense to do" but instead they didn't want it to appear in any instance like a tutorial podcast or app that might show someone how to jailbreak and it censored more than what was intended.
Rating: 24 Votes
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Amazing Iceman
85 months ago
Here we go, a little Apple non-sense, and just before brunch...

So, is it now 'J*******k You!' going to replace :'[F word] You!' ?
Rating: 21 Votes
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pgifford
85 months ago
Doesn't doing that just bring more attention to it?
Rating: 18 Votes
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TheSlush
85 months ago
Must be a technical mistake, meant to be for app titles and not other content. To be corrected soon, I'm sure.
Rating: 17 Votes
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Andronicus
85 months ago
So stupid and petty. Go J*******k yourself, Apple.
Rating: 16 Votes
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Dimwhit
85 months ago
That's funny.

And, by the way, a great Thin Lizzy song.
Rating: 15 Votes

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