“The app targeted incumbent Henry Waxman’s voting record using pointed phrases like ‘Soviet-style regulation,'” McCullagh reports. “Under the App Store policy, ‘it’s fine as long as you show pictures of yourself with puppies and kittens, but don’t talk about the guy you want to replace in Congress,’ David, who has worked as a writer, actor, and stand-up comedian, told CNET on Friday.”
“Apple may believe that Democrats would be offended by a political app that says Waxman ‘supported cap & trade legislation that would have brought us $7 a gallon gas,'” McCullagh reports.
“This is hardly the first time, of course, that Apple has been the target of complaints alleging arbitrary App Store exclusion,” McCullagh reports. “Cartoonist Mark Fiore had to win a Pulitzer before his app was approved; it had been denied on the grounds that it ‘ridicules public figures,’ which Fiore intended to be the point of the exercise And Apple rejected, and then permitted, apps offering political caricatures and a defense of a government-run health care system.”
McCullagh reports, “David, one of five Republican primary candidates vying to challenge Waxman, an influential committee chairman, thinks the Apple employees who rejected his app were acting on their own personal biases. ‘That’s fine, but that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t go out and tell the world that that’s what happening with my candidacy.'”
More info and links in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Regardless of the politics involved in this specific instance, we’ve long said that Apple should be concerned about apps’ technical quality and adherence to the SDK agreement, not the ideas that the app espouses. For more detail, and what types of apps we believe should be rejected no matter what, please read our take here.
Also of note, we just ran the following searches Apple’s U.S. App Store and found:
• “Conservative” – 93 apps
• “Republican” – 100 apps
• “Liberal” – 54 apps
• “Democrat” – 70 apps
(note: some apps may be counted in multiple categories)
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
And here we go again…..
Cue political rants…..now
Reality has a well known liberal bias.
maybe a little cheese with that whine….
5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – let the whining and philistinism begin…
Dunno about you guys, but I wouldn’t want politicians from any team using my app store to pursue a political agenda. Use the Internet, we all have web browsers.
Besides, aren’t you guys all republicans anyway? I mean, that was the point of your impromptu poll, right MDN? You believe in the rights of businesses, right? So this guy can complain all he wants but it’ll make him sound like a hypocrite. Or worse… A LIBERAL!!!!!,,,!!!, Tough shit, buddy, Apple doesn’t owe it to you or anyone else to explain. That’s capitalism baby, and they’re doing great at it without you. Anyone who says otherwise is clearly a socialist.
Getting my post in before it hits 3 pages worth of political ramblings.
Incidentally, I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who is getting tired of MDN mixing Mac news and their political opinions. People of all political leanings (or none at all!) use Macs so why alienate certain people who came here to share their enjoyment of one of the very few things that liberals and conservatives can agree on (that Apple products kick ass)?
Thanks Apple for not helping the right wing in its continuing crusade to destroy Americans’ freedoms.
Maybe he should start a good ol’ Republican war… Maybe that aborted fetus would have grown up to accept his app. Maybe the NRA should step in… Maybe the vacuous bible-thumper religitard should ask for god’s assistance… Maybe Dick Cheny could “rough up” Steve jobs… Maybe Rush Limbaugh should accuse Obama as being responsible… Stupid Republicans…
Matt,
The point of MDN’s counting of apps was to show that, if anything, Apple is “biased” in the opposite direction than claimed by the Republican candidate Ari David.
That seems really, really obvious and extremely easy to grasp.
Not sure how you arrived at your crazy-ass conclusions… Actually, strike that, I know exactly how you got there: You can’t think dispassionately because you’re a knee-jerk Liberal.
Don’t worry, we’ll fix the uninformed mess you made soon enough.
Matt,
CNET reported this originally, not MDN. That’s what the quotation marks, attributions, and link to the full article mean.
MDN is here to cover Apple-related news. They have done their job.
You are clearly a moron.
MDN MW: “thinking” Give it a try sometime, will ya, Matt?
Ari?
Republican?
Hollywood?
I need to check the math
because that doesn’t add up….
@TT
Not just Hollywood, but West Hollywood too!
When he talks, you can hear the golf claps.
Who needs political apps of any type? Sounds like something that nobody would download anyway. Bor-ing
@cubert
in your haste to get your comment in early, you forgot to say anything!
@tyoung
myopic much?
Here we go again. No MDN for me today… I’m OUTTA here!
Well, he’s free to put an app in the Adenoid platform… why hasn’t he yet? And I wish people who aren’t funny would stop calling themselves Stand Up Comedians…
David’s puerile, blatantly inflammatory, and inaccurate phrasing transcends any political shade, and is not fit for public discourse in any venue.
I think all apps that don’t serve a purpose for the consumer, be it entertainment or tool, should not be allowed. This app serves no purpose other than for the developer, to state this candidates views. It is totally useless to the consumer. I say this even though I am definitely politically conservative. The app store os full of junk as it is.
I am a Liberal—and I think Apple is in the wrong on this one.
This app appears to be nothing more than a way for Ari David to collect microdonations from his supporters. Anyone else would see it for what it is: political talking points, aka hyperbole unrelated to truth. It’s Apple store, so they can do as they wish (up to legal limits), but they need to lighten up and stay consistent on the rejections.
Ari David? Wow, talk about courage to stand up to Her Highness, Barbara Streisand.
Waxman, aka “Nostrilitus”
Waxman the dem with the upside down nose and upside down ideas for the USA. Apps don’t have to be downloaded if you don’t like them.
I wouldn’t even consider an app promoting ‘The Big 0’. Zero, that is.