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What Content Might Apple Be Censoring Out of iCloud Emails?

Mar. 1, 2013 10:33am Liz Klimas

When you hear the phrase “barely legal teen,” what comes to mind? Yep, Apple seems to think the same thing too and seems to have not been delivering emails that contain it.

Macworld’s Mark Hattersley, who sent test emails from personal iCloud account, found Apple won’t deliver them if they contain the offending phrase.

iCloud Spam Filter Blocks Barely Legal Teen Phrase

Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces iCloud during a keynote address to the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Monday, June 6, 2011. (Photo: AP/Paul Sakuma)

Macworld’s message read: “My friend’s son is already allowed to drive his high-powered car. It’s ridiculous. He’s a barely legal teenage driver? What on earth is John thinking.”

In a second email he changed “a barely legal” to “barely a legal” and found separating “barely” and “legal” was key to allowing the message to go through. Macworld also found that the phrase is not blocked by Siri or in iMessages.

On the other hand, Read Write Web’s John Paul Titlow also said he sent himself “some pretty horrendous things to test this out” but all of them went through.

(Image: Wikimedia)

The difference here could have been that Titlow sent the emails from “multiple external, non-Apple email accounts” to an account using iCloud, while Macworld’s Hattersley sent the offending phrase from an iCloud account.

The blocking mechanism was actually first reported by Macworld sister site Infoworld in November 2012 but has only recently been gaining traction. Infoworld was alerted to the issue by a reader named Steven G., who developed screenplay-writing software used by filmmakers. Steven G. was having trouble getting his emails to go through and found out that a PDF of a screenplay with the “barely legal teen” phrase was to blame.

Steven G. created a PDF with a similar sentence to screenplay’s offending line that read: ”All my children are barely legal teens — why would I want to let them drive by themselves?” This was blocked.

Infoworld went on to point out the following from iCloud’s Terms and Conditions that appears to be involved in blocking the phrase [emphasis added]:

You acknowledge that Apple is not responsible or liable in any way for any Content provided by others and has no duty to pre-screen such Content. However, Apple reserves the right at all times to determine whether Content is appropriate and in compliance with this Agreement, and may pre-screen, move, refuse, modify and/or remove Content at any time, without prior notice and in its sole discretion, if such Content is found to be in violation of this Agreement or is otherwise objectionable.

That said there are many cases where “barely legal teen” would have absolutely nothing to with pornographic situations and if it did, should it really be blocked?

“Barely legal is, as many people note, not the same as ‘illegal’ so Apple has no legal requirement to enforce this rule, and appears to be doing it of its own volition,” Macworld stated.

Apple confirmed to Ars Technica that “occasionally, automated spam filters may incorrectly block legitimate email. If the customer feels that a legitimate message is blocked, we encourage customers to report it to AppleCare.”

Many are calling these actions “censoring,” but Titlow with Read Write Web wrote it is more simply “an anti-spam mechanism that’s been set a little too broadly”

Macworld, in a separate post, reported that after its initial article Apple’s iCloud seemed to experience problems for some users for nearly 12 hours.

“Users experienced a problem with multiple iCloud services,” its support page read.

Was Macworld’s calling attention to its blocking mechanism to blame? “Was everyone testing Apple’s spam filter?” Macworld wondered.

Apple’s history with blocking pornographic content didn’t begin here. In 2011, for example, Apple was fighting against URLs using “iPhone” in their name that linked to adult websites. Macworld also noted that Apple doesn’t allow pornographic apps or books to be sold int its App Store or iBookstore.

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Comments (21)

Bikkiboo
Posted on March 2, 2013 at 8:28pm
Since Apple owns its servers, I guess they can do what they choose. If they’re trying to keep out objectionable stuff, good for them. It’s nice to know someone wants to filter bad stuff out. Yes, it’s a kind of censorship, just like I censored my kids’ TV shows, music, etc. I was in charge, I set the standards, and I made sure they followed them. If Apple IS doing this, and you don’t like it, don’t use their services. Other options are available.

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lessoneleg
Posted on March 1, 2013 at 10:02pm
here we go, Apple now has a Tom Cruise “Thought Crime” division. Yep, its hard enough negociating the English language with its twists and turns of nuance language structures. A “NEW” thought crime division of the progressively liberal Nanny State Division of Apple will pre-screen your personal emails to make them squeeky clean liberally.
What’s next week in the hit list of offensive language. How about the ebonics department of language studies describing females, and female body parts.
Bottom line, you cannot legislate prosperity. No matter how offensive you may think a word is to one person, down the road that same word is hunky dory to another.
Ask a UK person about being “bonked”. In North America we’ve determined that word to characterize being hit on the head. But in the UK, being “bonked” is quite the opposite. It’s a sexual term of personal satisfaction.

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CFabz
Posted on March 1, 2013 at 9:25pm
I’ve been in IT admin for almost 10 years now. This sounds more like a badly implemented Spam prevention rule rather than a willful attempt at censorship.

When a spammer (though infected computers) sends out spam through a hijacked account, he will send thousands of e-mail messages to a mail (SMTP) server. Once these messages are received by other mail servers, some servers will report the original SMTP server to an rDNS blacklist. If enough send reports to the blacklist, it will mark the originating SMTP server as a source for spam. Incoming mail servers use these blacklists to drop (meaning not even reach your junk mail box) messages originating from known spam relays regardless of who sent the message (otherwise 96% of your mailbox would be filled with spam).

This means that if someone hijacked an iCloud account and used it for spam, the server will no longer will be able to relay messages and the iCloud accounts that use that server cannot send mail. Fortunately, this can be prevented because professionally implemented SMTP servers have safeguards to drop spam messages from being sent in the first place, because spam has several characteristics, such as forged headers, formatting characteristics, and (in this case) common words and phrases (like ads for online pharmacies, etc.). Apple made a bad decision to deem those words as always used for spam, which they are clearly not.

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1FreeVoice
Posted on March 1, 2013 at 3:34pm
Censorship is the thought police in action. It is deciding what people are allowed to think in public. Private thoughts do not contaminate others with ideas or opinions that they disapprove of.

Political correctness is an assault on honesty. If you are not allowed to say what you really think, you are being told to sit down and be quiet, or lie through your teeth.

Read the letter in which the phrase separation of church and state first appears between Jefferson and the Danbury Baptists, and you will find ” that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions,”. The reference was in respect to religion, but more broadly may be expressed as support for the right of free speech and opposition to censorship. (google full text)

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ValidFib
Posted on March 1, 2013 at 1:21pm
I tried ‘Obama’s birth certificate’ and the email never made it through.

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4dogsandagun
Posted on March 1, 2013 at 12:31pm
I just sent myself an email with the subject “barely legal teen” and sent it from my icloud account to one of my email addresses on another server. I have not received the email. When I hit send I heart the “whoosh” sound indicating it was sent but have not received it in my other account and it is not in another folder waiting to be delivered. I don’t like this at all.

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GuruMeditation
Posted on March 1, 2013 at 11:47am
I don’t like clouds.

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- Silvertruth
  Posted on March 1, 2013 at 12:19pm
  Clouds are fine, censoring my mail, either incoming or outgoing is about par for the course for Apple. They know better than you do so, when you buy Apple products, they get the right to tell you what to do, when to do it and if you can do it at all…
  
  It’s not censorship, you have to buy the product so you are agreeing to their governance of it, but it’s yet another reason why Apple has none of my money.
  
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Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on March 1, 2013 at 11:38am
If it’s free, and I know my iCloud email account is, they can do what they want with their email.

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Cavallo
Posted on March 1, 2013 at 11:15am
If it is a spam blocker, why isn’t it dropping it into a spam folder instead? The article seems to suggest that it is preventing delivery at all.

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DZ-015
Posted on March 1, 2013 at 11:02am
It seems like Apple is doing something similar to The Blaze, which refuses to print certain words in their comments section. There is obviously a program which substitutes asterisks for certain words even when they are not being used in a suggestive or offensive manner. At least the comments usually go through in their redacted form, while it looks like Apple will not send the messages in question. My favorite Blaze example is the commenter whose screen name appears as ******. If you click on one of his/her posts you will find out what the redacted name is.

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- barber2
  Posted on March 1, 2013 at 11:23am
  Well, at least the Blaze is not like the Lefty New York Times which doesn’t post comments unfavorable to the Obama crowd . The NYT is censorship central – when they are not LEAKING info for the White House.
  
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- JRook
  Posted on March 1, 2013 at 3:45pm
  @barber2 spare us with the “their censorship” is not as bad as someone else’s logic. You either censor or you don’t. Are you prepared to provide similar leeway with regard to the second amendment.
  
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Stoic one
Posted on March 1, 2013 at 11:00am
Filtering should be the responsibility of the recipient; not the message carrier.

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- imperative
  Posted on March 1, 2013 at 1:23pm
  There is no “should” in this context. Companies can do what they want with the services they provide. Customers can decide whether or not to buy/use the service.
  
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SpankDaMonkey
Posted on March 1, 2013 at 10:50am
.
When you hear the phrase “barely legal teen,” what comes to mind?…..

Anthony Weiner abusing himself in a corner?…..

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brigott
Posted on March 1, 2013 at 10:46am
My only reason for going to the article was to try to find out what that headline means.

I’m thinking that English is not required as a first language for TheBlaze writers.

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IndyGuy
Posted on March 1, 2013 at 10:35am
“What Content Might Apple Apple Censoring Out of iCloud Emails?”

Huh???

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- sparkyrules
  Posted on March 1, 2013 at 10:45am
  No doubt.
  
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- Gonzo
  Posted on March 1, 2013 at 10:45am
  Glad I’m not the only one scratching my head about that headline.
  
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- Cavallo
  Posted on March 1, 2013 at 10:47am
  Does that mean Apple is censoring Apple out of Apple emails?
  
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