Apple Blocks ‘Hide It Hillary’ Game, Allows Anti-Trump Apps
The Apple App Store has reportedly banned a satirical and seemingly innocuous Hillary Clinton-inspired game called “Hide it Hillary,” a send-up of the Democrat presidential nominee’s handling or mishandling of government documents in the private email server controversy.
The approval process for the app in question took eight hours, as apposed to the normal 60 minutes or so, according to what the developers claimed on Reddit, after which they received a rejection notice on grounds of objectionable content. The two-person company apparently decided to launch the app from scratch after they noticed how there weren’t many Hillary Clinton-related games as opposed to those mocking the GOP presidential nominee.
“The game is a simple concept: you play from a first person perspective and ‘sort’ documents that land on your desk into a Laptop, Server, Shredder, or Closet. Hillary’s image or likeness isn’t even really represented… All of the ‘documents’ that you sort were taken directly from the State Department via official release via the freedom of information act,” they explained about the app that took them about six months to create.
The game is currently available on Google Play, however. Ironically in this context perhaps, Google and other social media portals have been accused by Donald Trump supporters of allegedly trying to skew or censor content or search results to help Hillary Clinton win the presidency. As the Inquisitr previously detailed, WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange has also maintained that Google is actively working with the Hillary Clinton election campaign to help get her elected.
Apple’s rejection notice explained that the the app “includes content that could be considered defamatory or mean-spirited. Specifically, the app refers to a controversial event.”
According to the HeatStreet website, Apple is engaging in a double standard given the many anti-Donald Trump games with violent overtones that are available on the App Store.
“Titles currently available on the App Store include Trump Toss, Punch Trump, Trump Slap, Slap Donald Trump and Smack a Trump. There’s also Trump Dump, which depicts the presidential candidate as a literal pile of sh*t.”
My latest for @heatstreet. A game satirical of Hillary Clinton is banned by Apple. Anti-Trump games are fine though. https://t.co/YUgb9WHPEV
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 2, 2016
One of the “Hide it Hillary” developers with Ansem Omega Solutions similarly told HeatStreet that “I absolutely believe there’s a double standard with Apple in the sense that they have defamatory and mean-spirited Trump games available for download but none for Hillary. I cited specific examples in my Reddit post.”
“Apple’s App Store appears to be protecting Hillary Clinton from political satire games while allowing titles like ‘Punch Trump’ onto the digital retail platform,” the Washington Times asserted about the situation.
Apple CEO Tim Cook hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton late last month with three levels of contributions to get a ticket: $2,700, $10,000, and $50,000, BuzzFeed reported. Cook also hosted a June fundraiser for GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan.
OF COURSE: Apple Removes ‘Hide It Hillary’ Mobile App Game But Allows ‘Punch Trump’ https://t.co/R9KyW1hqMV
— ARnews 1936 (@ARnews1936) September 4, 2016
Back in February, Donald Trump called for a boycott of Apple when the tech giant declined to help the FBI break into the iPhone owned by one of the San Bernardino terrorists.
The “Hide it Hillary” game ban by Apple would not be the first time it has faced allegations of a corporate double standard or hypocrisy.
Along with other prominent tech companies, Apple denounced the North Carolina bathroom law (and previously the Indiana religious freedom law) but conducts business in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries where gay rights are nonexistent or worse, TheWeek and many other news outlets have claimed.
“Whatever the reason for Apple’s censorship, the case is clear: Apple think it’s okay to make fun of Donald Trump, but it’s not okay to make fun of Hillary Clinton,” HeatStreet concluded.
Parenthetically, the controversy over the emails arguably rebooted, as it were, on Friday when the FBI released its Hillary Clinton investigation files including information about the 3-1/2 hour interview that agents conducted with her.
As yet, Apple has not issued a public statement to further explain why to this point it has rejected the “Hide it Hillary” mobile game from its App Store while allowing the anti-Trump downloads.
[Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Images]
