Games with Confederate flag being removed from Apple Store

[FarAway Sooner]

Some of you may feel like the anti-Confederacy social group is going overboard and (dare I say it?) oppressing you and others.  But that's a different discussion from whether Apple's decision was motivated by ideology or hard-headed, practical business criteria.

[JasonPratt]

Apple's decision could have been motivated by apparent promotional gain, or perhaps protection -- but as someone noted above, that's admittedly responding to ideological pressure, so the ideological pressure is still the root cause.

It is also entirely possible (as I think I mentioned somewhere) that people in Apple took the opportunity to do this in a fashion that pushed an ideological point they agreed with.

I'd say that's even more than probable, since their stupid form letter accuses publishers outright of definitely doing something immoral, despite there being no possible way that this could have been checked other than simply having a Confederate flag somewhere (despite the form letter saying that they weren't removing products only because of the flag but because of definite wrongdoing in how the flag was used.  )

That simply would not have happened if ideology wasn't driving at least how the ban was implemented, and maybe why the ban was put in place to begin with.

[panzerde]

It is also entirely possible (as I think I mentioned somewhere) that people in Apple took the opportunity to do this in a fashion that pushed an ideological point they agreed with.

I'd say that's even more than probable, since their stupid form letter accuses publishers outright of definitely doing something immoral, despite there being no possible way that this could have been checked other than simply having a Confederate flag somewhere (despite the form letter saying that they weren't removing products only because of the flag but because of definite wrongdoing in how the flag was used.  )

I agree completely, Jason. This possibility has seemed very likely to me from the outset.

Having said that, my experience with companies like Google and Apple as someone in the industry suggests another possibility. All of these big tech companies offshore most of the day-to-day of their operations. I've encountered plenty of situations where a policy was enforced to the exact letter of the law, despite such enforcement being totally nonsensical. The non-US staff simply don't understand due to language barriers and a lack of knowledge of US culture, so they do exactly what they're told. It may be that some offshore group was told to remove any instances of the CSA flag in games that violated Apple policies and standards, and they just pulled it all out of ignorance.

In other words, Hanlon's Razor: not malice but incompetence.

[LongBlade]

In other words, Hanlon's Razor: not malice but incompetence.

An excellent point!

[JasonPratt]

Why wouldn't Apple immediately explain that's what happened afterward, though?  ???

Also, surely Apple wouldn't have sent them instructions to look over games in a complex manner for indictment (not simply for having a flag but for immorally using a flag, per the form letter's explanation), knowing from long internal experience the instructions would be simplified in execution?

It seems more plausible to me that four thousand offshore maintenance workers were handed a sheet saying, in effect, "Go look through the 40 thousand applications on the store and if any of them feature a Confederate flag in the artwork or in the game, take it down, and send this form letter to the publisher. Here are the ten applications you personally should look into, [insert computer generated list of apps here]. Make sure you install and run each app for a few minutes to look around in it." And then some of those four thousand Indians and/or whoever they subcontracted off in Brazil figured out it was easier to simply delete anything to do with the American Civil War without even seeing if a Confederate flag showed up at all (since the vast majority of such applications on that topic would surely have one somewhere.)

[BanzaiCat]

I noticed those Civil War games by Hunted Cow are back in the App Store.

[Sir Slash]

But the Confederate battle flags have been replaced with Rainbow Gay Pride flags. And the South has been rendered unable to win. In fact in the next version of the game, there will just be two Union armies facing each other and they won't fight. They will resolve their differences by meeting in the middle of the map and agreeing to reduce their respective Carbon Footprints. Won't that be fun? I'm sorry if this post offends anyone or anything. I don't want to be labeled a War Criminal. :-X

[JasonPratt]

Could be worse. They could be resolving their differences in a fashion consonant with the new Rainbow flags...  >:D

[Sir Slash]

That's an image I can do without.