Mix Apple with Politics - Not a Good Recipe
By Daryl Cagle | November 10th, 2009 | PERMALINK
I’m holding my breath. I’m now into my third month of waiting for Apple to approve my iPhone app. Yesterday I heard from Apple that they need more time to think about it.
My app is pretty cool; it is called “MSNBC.com Cartoons” and it features a real time news feed of political cartoons by top cartoonists from around the world. My app will be supported and promoted by MSNBC.com along with their other iPhone apps … that is, if Apple approves it.
It seems I have plenty to worry about. Apps for the iPhone have been multiplying at an exponential rate, with over 100,000 now approved. Developers are looking to strike it rich with the next “iFart,” but as the sheer numbers of apps explodes, the chance of an app being a hit becomes more remote and frustration with Apple’s app approval process grows. Developers have to invest in creating a finished app before submitting it to Apple, which can arbitrarily trash the investments and hopes of aspiring developers – as happened to a friend of mine this week.
My buddy Tom Richmond, the brilliant Mad Magazine artist, just finished drawing 544 caricatures of members of congress for an app called “Bobble Rep.” The app works as a directory of every congressman, displaying their contact information by zip code or by the GPS location of the iPhone user. Shake the iPhone and the rep’s head “bobbles.” It is a cute app, and the caricatures are not unflattering. Apple rejected “Bobble Rep.”
A letter from Apple explained the rejection:
“… We’ve reviewed Bobble Rep – 111th Congress Edition 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 judgment may be found objectionable, for example, materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory.”
A screenshot of this issue has been attached for your reference.”
This is the image that Apple found "objectionable."
At right is a screenshot of the objectionable image that Apple attached to their rejection letter.
Ray Griggs, the producer of the “Bobble Rep” app, suffered a blow as he saw his investment in programming and in 544 Tom Richmond cartoons arbitrarily flushed away. Griggs writes,
“I wonder if they saw my website (www.iwantyourmoney.net) that promotes the iPhone app and rejected the app because I am making a Republican Documentary. Are they trying to shut me down? (Just speculation. However, it is uncanny that the “offensive” page image they sent me is of the California reps.) Is there anything on this page that could possibly be found offensive?”
My cartoonist buddy Tom Richmond writes,
“Clearly this app does not ‘ridicule public figures’ and is violating nothing, but Apple has decided the world must be protected from the insidious subversiveness this would force upon the public and the brutal, heinous ridicule that my cruel, cruel caricatures would subject these politicians to.
Hard to believe that anybody could be this blind. Maybe they just have a monkey doing the approval of their apps, and he throws a dart at a dartboard with “approved” and “rejected” targets on it and whatever it hits is the fate of that app. That would explain how they could approve an app with a cartoon baby picture and when you shake the phone hard enough the baby dies. Yes, that one got through only to be yanked after some outraged people complained, but no way are a bunch of flame-throwing caricatures going to get through!!!
Unbelievable.”
Prolific iPhone app developer Brian Stormont has this advice for hopeful app applicants:
“Don’t make any jokes about political figures, past or present, in either your app or the description in iTunes. Apple will most-likely reject your app.”
Apple would seem to be a bi-partisan offendee. App developer Brandyn Brosemer reports that his “iBush” app was rejected for the same reason. The app was a collection of actual George W. Bush quotes that the reader could scroll through.
Another Apple political app rejection is “MyShoe” which allowed users to throw shoes at president Bush.
Studies show that people use the iPhone differently than other mobile devices – they read news content on the iPhone and tend not to do so on other phones. The iPhone’s market share for news and opinion is dominant, while all other phones have an insignificant market share. Although any publisher can decide what content he wants in his own publication, Apple’s phone-news monopoly brings with it a public trust and responsibility in controlling content for a whole category of media.
And with my own political cartoons app review dragging on, I’m still holding my breath.
Turning blue now.
Comments
Comment from Scott
Time November 10, 2009 at 12:53 pm
keep trying all you can…apple doesn\’t run the world or you for that matter.
Comment from Dave H
Time November 10, 2009 at 3:21 pm
You might want to remind Mr. Richmond that monkeys don’t throw darts at dart boards. What they throw is usually quite different.
Comment from Amy Miller
Time November 10, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Unbelievable! I access news on my phone all the time, and I don’t even use AT&T, so no iPhone possible here. I would have loved that app if I had an iPhone, too. Apple is stupid about its apps. That baby shaking one should have never gotten through. I also would have been interested in the one where you could throw shoes at Bush, but I never did like Bush. Apple is stupid to not take on apps like that one.
Comment from Rob
Time November 10, 2009 at 4:54 pm
I understand they tried to make an Obama bobble head but it kept sticking to the monitor.
Comment from Scott
Time November 10, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Please make these apps (all of the rejected ones above) for the Blackberry! We\’d LOVE to have them! 
Scott
Comment from JimG
Time November 10, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Everyone is so friggin’ sensitive these days about offending someone in jest. I thought the cartoons were pretty tame! If I drew them, Feinstein would have had bolts in her neck and a forehead scar.
Comment from Michael
Time November 10, 2009 at 5:17 pm
So port the app to the Android Operating system. I am sure that Sprint, Qwest, Verizon, T-Mobile would love to have you.
And Google doesn’t do any evil - well, most of the time at least….
Comment from Jim_H
Time November 10, 2009 at 5:42 pm
You might as well start breathing Darryl, I hate the thought of losing a great cartoonist (political and other wise I’m sure) to some MORON who does’nt see what a gold mine they got if they loosen the restrictions a little. Oh well, that is life at the apple tree. Meanwhile keep your chin up and lets hope that they approve your app.
Comment from Kevin
Time November 10, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Publish your app for the Google Android OS. It will be much more welcome.
Because everyone knows iPhones (and all other apple creations) are for the people who want to seem cool, Blackberrys are for business users, and Android phones are for the intelligent.
Comment from J.
Time November 10, 2009 at 11:09 pm
DUH ! ‘FREE’ Enterprise (aka: CORPORATIONS) and Fascism in more than just a ‘kissing cousins’ relationship (or perhaps just good business, eh, don’t offend, particularly those who might either invest in or regulate you, or both) just, go back as far as you want or can in history… wasn’t there also something about GOOGLE and our good friends the Chinese (still ostensibly COMMIES, as well as major debt holders/investors in the US economy) and information and access restraint? Isn’t it really just about Incestuous Money/Power Orgies, Church, State, Business, Military, etc…..
p.s. I’m still basically an analog or pre-analog boy, why all the big need for devices (I suppose those who need them know)? I have preferred Apple over Micro, but it seems to me that they are likely just the same-old with a ‘hipper’ face…
Comment from Tracer
Time November 11, 2009 at 12:24 am
As far as the Griggs/Richmond “Bobble Rep” app goes there are already a dozen or more congressional directory apps and with Web access there is access to even more content via direct access to .gov sites (Thomas.gov, cbo.gov, epa.gov, nasa.gov) So it’s nothing new.
And what if, just what if, on an update those caricatures weren’t so flattering?
The lines got to be drawn and right now Apple’s drawn it here.
It’s not likely the Apple review board knew it but funny that Griggs is booked to appear as a guest on Fox News next week with Glenn Beck and Mike Huckabee.
I’m sure it will come up as part of the Left Wing Conspiracy to put down the little guy. We’ll see Beck make his next step down the McCarthyist road of demagoguery.
Comment from KarikaturaLv
Time November 11, 2009 at 8:34 am
Incredible… Seems Apple going to wrong way…
Comment from SteveO
Time November 11, 2009 at 8:39 am
If they can you why not convert it over to Microsoft just to piss off Apple?
Comment from Warren
Time November 11, 2009 at 10:07 am
Barring Apple’s approval, you might want to look into the possibilities of selling it as an app for jailbroken iPhones.
Scuttlebutt holds that Apple might not be exclusive with AT&T much longer - the serious second carrier contender appears to be Verizon - so this might change some things as well.
Comment from Wageslave
Time November 11, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Apple is getting more like a Television network. Bean counting business people trying to defy President Lincoln\’s famous wisdom \"YOU CAN\’T PLEASE ALL THE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME\" yet they try & end up pleasing nobody. It\’s the same arrogant yet fearfull mindset that AOL used to filter their network for potentialy offensive words like \"breast\" and they ended up insulting the members of their own \"Breast Cancer Support Group\" creating the biggest service cancellation deluge in a 24 hour period in history.
Comment from Eccles9
Time November 11, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Freedom of speech can only be found in WAP, not apps!
Comment from mattviator
Time November 11, 2009 at 9:08 pm
I agree with some of the others it should NOT be limited to the iphone. Android is growing at over %118 per year. Its used on devices on most major networks not just AT&T. Also lets not forget blackberry and palm web os :).
Comment from Donna Barstow
Time November 11, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I\’m on the right, Karyl, but so is the producer of Tom\’s app, so I don\’t think so!
Daryl, your app sounds great. Hope it goes forward. Nice article, too.
You didn\’t quote their license rules, which I\’m too lazy to look up, but it sounds like this was a by the book rejection, based on no politics, even though I would DEFINITELY buy such an app, since I always want contact info for decision makers in my hands.
I think I\’ll redo this app with smiley faces, but don\’t tell Tom.
Signed, Conspiracy Gurl
Comment from Nate
Time November 12, 2009 at 12:46 am
I second the Android app suggestion. I’ll have my new Android phone in a couple days and I’ll be ready for you when you are. App market is open without this frustration. I mean it’s a shame that you can’t get on Apple, but you should play with the people who are willing to play.
Comment from Carl
Time November 12, 2009 at 10:22 am
I can’t imagine why anyone would want his app in the first place. Most of them offered are crap, why not his too!
Comment from Tammy
Time November 12, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Make it for the Palm Pre, I would use it and so would other Palm Pre users
Comment from corq
Time November 14, 2009 at 10:52 am
Seriously, I realize that Apple hosts the highest profile app store out there, but I would seriously port this to webOS and android markets. Open Source it and if the actual porting is a pain, work with one of the many devs in the android and webOS communities to get it out there. Short of protecting us from malware or scam apps, I don\\\’t think apple or any other platform should be \\"screening\\" apps for political content one way or the other. APPLE: Let the market decide.
Comment from Chris B
Time November 21, 2009 at 7:30 am
I realize this blog entry is 11 days old, but I found \"Bobble Rep (111th congress edition)\" on the swedish app store. So either it got approved, or I am allowed to \"ridicule\" the your reps over here. I am buying and downloading the app as I type.
(There)
Aha, the iPhone thinks I am in PA (Pennsylvania?)
Well, that\’s a buck spent to support Mr. Richmond.
Let\’s see if Myshoe is in the app store…..Nope, and no MSNBC cartoons either.
But on a more serious note, apple needs to review their app reviewing.
Comment from James Whitworth
Time November 10, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Ah, Apple. Champions of the creative industries, champions of thinking differently, champions of breaking the mold. An insufferable untruth.