The blockchain-based payment and file-sharing network LBRY has denounced that the technology giant Apple forced it to filter certain search terms during the COVID-19 crisis in an apparent rejection of freedom of expression.
In a November 28 post on Twitter, LBRY alleges that it was asked to censor anything related to COVID-19, especially vaccines and the human origins of the virus, or face removal of its apps from the Apple store.
“We had to come up with a list of over 20 terms that would not show up in search results, only on Apple devices. If we didn’t leak the terms, our apps would not be allowed in the store,” the cryptocurrency firm claimed.
LBRY is a decentralized content sharing platform that allows artists, filmmakers, writers, and other content creators to maintain full artistic and financial control over their work. His Odysee video-sharing website is one of his best-known applications, but it is not clear if this application was involved in the alleged censorship.
The blockchain firm made the disclosure in response to a post by Elon Musk, who said Apple has stopped advertising on Twitter “for the most part” due to concerns about content on the platform, prompting LBRY to share his experience with Apple during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During Covid, Apple demanded our apps filter some search terms from being returned. If we did not filter the terms, our apps would not be allowed in the store.
Apple may make good products, but they have been opposed to free speech for some time.
—LBRY (@LBRYcom) November 28, 2022
During the Covid pandemic, Apple required our apps to filter out some search terms so they wouldn’t be returned. If we didn’t filter the terms, our apps couldn’t be in the store. Apple may make good products, but it has long been an opponent of free speech.
LBRY also alleges that when some of its users included images of Pepe the Frog in videos, Apple “rejected” them.
Pepe the Frog is a green anthropomorphic frog internet meme originating in 2005, which has since been adopted by protest groups in Hong Kong and used in politically based ideology.
The cryptocurrency company said that “Apple may make good products, but it has long been an opponent of free speech.”
Cointelegraph has reached out to Apple for comment on the situation, but has not received a response at press time.
In the meantime, discussions around censorship on Twitter have continued.
Musk took over Twitter on October 28 and has been alluding to the release of the “Twitter Files,” alleged evidence of a concentrated effort by Twitter’s former management to clamp down on free speech on the platform.
The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
The Twitter files on the suppression of free speech will be posted soon on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened…
Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and subsequent plans for the platform have caused some users to seek decentralized social networks as an alternative.
Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey recently unveiled his new Bitcoin (BTC)-based Bluesky Social app, recently presented its new application Bluesky Social, based on Bitcoin
The Oct. 18 announcement came roughly three years after Dorsey announced the initiative, with the aim of allowing users to have control of their data and to be able to move it from one platform to another without permission.
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