“Apple has reportedly begun the filtering of outbound messages sent via its MobileMe service,” John Leyden reports for The Register.
“The upshot is that whatever email client a MobileMe user uses, their message will be blocked without notification, reportedly even if the offending content in question contains mild political criticism,” Leyden reports. “Reg reader Mike Conley, who was the first to tell us of the problem, said that one of three offending messages he sent was blocked because it mentioned the phrase ‘growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels.’ An email about civil unrest in Greece about the sovereign debt crisis/austerity budget was also dropped. Conley realised there was a problem because he sends messages to himself via bcc. He complained and one of the offending messages was transmitted only for the problem to reappear days later. As a result, Conley has decided to stop using the service after having been a loyal fan for more than 10 years.”
Leyden writes, “Generally speaking we’re much more inclined to attribute this sort of thing to a technical screw-up rather than a deliberate policy. The alternative is truly chilly.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We just tested MobileMe, sending messages via both .mac and .me email address with the subject line text, “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” and the emails were not delivered. Following those, we sent messages via both .mac and .me email address with the subject line text, “innocuous test” and the emails were delivered promptly.
We also sent the following message via both .mac and .me email address with the subject line text, “forty-eight characters in subject line as a test” (same number of characters as “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels”) and the emails were delivered promptly.
As Leyden states, “It’s very likely there’s some innocent explanation to this,” but until Apple publicly and clearly explains what is going on here, Do not use Apple’s MobileMe email service.
We have sent a an inquiry to Apple and will update this article when and if they respond.
UPDATE: 11:44am EDT: We just resent messages via both .mac and .me email address with the subject line text, “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” and the emails were delivered. The emails we sent earlier that were exactly the same compositions still have not arrived.
Therefore, something has changed in the last half hour and/or the reliability of MobileMe email is questionable. Use at your own risk.
Not that there’s any reason to believe that MDN is lying (or any reason to trust that I’m not), but I was unable to receive the “growing hostility…” message, but did receive a “test message” using my @mac and @me addresses. They were sent using my iphone.
So because I have the luxury of time, I tried this a few more times and some have been received, some not received.
Not sounding good at the moment. 🙁
So MDN, have you heard back from Apple? Eh?
Having said that, messages sent using the seven dirty words in the subject and body were received.
You guys are a bunch of babies. Stupid, asswipes babies. OK, fine, don’t use .me mail. I could not give a shit. Grow the fsck up.
Whoa, relax there hombre. Who pissed in your Fruit Loops this morning?
Worked for me. Sent from @me to my own domain which then forwards to @me. I’m in the US.
Who asked you, moron?
Who asked Who? Is that a song by AC/DC? 😛
The answer is: Who itself.
If an email service is having intermittent problems or is applying unannounced filtering rules, then people need to know. Chill, X.
You have no right to behave this way Mr. X.
Looked at it in the mirror again eh. Dude, just let it go… overcompensating by spewing stuff like this on a message board is more embarrassing than a small… er… yeah..
Just tested various combinations of dot mac/me addresses as well as our corporate email account with no problems whatsoever; all messages were delivered no matter which account was sending or receiving them.
I just tried my .mac email, and it was delivered within thirty seconds with no issues.
send the “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” in subject line.
I did, using both my .me and .mac addresses. Sent and received with no issues.
I call this bogus.
Read the update.
and if you were to look, this has been going on for a while.
the article shows July 1st.
“UPDATE: 11:44am EDT: We just resent messages via both .mac and .me email address with the subject line text, “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” and the emails were delivered. The emails we sent earlier that were exactly the same compositions still have not arrived.
Therefore, something has changed in the last half hour and/or the reliability of MobileMe email is questionable. Use at your own risk.”
and I still call it bogus.
Are there ANY other reports of emails set but no received, regardless of content, or even with other political content?
I’d think that in six fucking days after the initial article in the Register, SOMEONE would have been able to verify that various political content is being censored.
Since this is the only place I have read it, and most people here are, like me, experiencing NO issues of unsent email (regardless of content), I think this is a bogus report, posted just for the inflamatory affect of inflating page hits.
The Register is NOT known for its pro-Apple stances in the past.
actually if you READ the article… not the register article, the one THEY link to…. you’d see there ARE other ones that are filtered.
And if you do even more research, you’d find this isn’t the first time…
Agree.
The guys been using the service for 100 computer years, there’s a small burp, so he just wants to take his ball and go home.
Sounds like a little brat.
yeah, macintouch started covering this over a week ago.. few were able to reproduce reliably. bogus issue.
Apple…. do NOT go down this road.
I sent a test message FROM .me. didn’t go through.
sent same message from another account TO .me, came through.
I don’t know what the reasoning is.. but they had better quit.
People, just chill. This could easily be an automatic spam problem and Apple probably edited the filter since the problem was reported. Way to create a storm in a teacup eh John Leyden
Bull.
“This is a test, and only a test.”
Restricting free speech is “CHILLING”
Same thing for me. .Me and .Mac did not work. My other e-mails work just fine. Sent other messages through .Me and .Mac and they came through immediately! hmmmmmmm. Big Brother??? Wouldn’t that be something? Even MDN is wondering (although I’m sure it will all be some lame reason or somebody else’s fault, right?). Also, who the hell at Apple is responsible for coming up with .Me? Almost as bad as calling something Mobile Me. What? Talk about lame? Sounds almost as bad as calling something ” Ping! ” C’mon Apple ya gotta do better than that! These titles sound like something MSFT would come up with.
Sometimes Apple is ridiculously prude, for instance all those censored books and music titles (i.e. “C.. Sancto Spiritu”) that we see on iTunes.
Prude?????? I doubt it. Sounds like communism to me!
Just so we’re clear (and hopefully to avoid a trip down political Lane), there’s nothing definitely “communist” about censorship.. you know that, right? The US government partakes in the censorship, the cuban government partakes in censorship, the UK gov, McDonalds corporation, parents when telling their kids things…
The communists are the ones they’re all trying to emulate observer. Get a clue. Democrat equals communist in sheep’s clothing. The sooner you drones figure it out the better. Other people’s money and private property is not yours for the taking aholes.
Sometime I would like to sit down and have a beer with reactionaries like you. I bet it would be quite entertaining.
No it wouldn’t. You have heard it all before.
King Smell sucks.
Willy – please take your insulting political rants to the appropriate forum.
Take a look at everything Maobama and comrades are doing. It’s tracking heavily towards communism. Willy is correct!
OMG REPUBLICAN EQUALS NAZI IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING. CORPORATISM + MILITARY + NATIONALISM + XENOPHOBIA LA LA LA LA
Go back to the 19th century.
Republicans aren’t stealing your private property and rights. Its you scum bag, know it all, ahole, liberals, who think you can demand everyone live their lives the way you tell them too. You people are freaking sickos. Why is the incandescent light bulb being banned????? Junk-liberal-science that’s why.
More like the church lady.
I couldn’t replicate this problem… but I live in Canada, should that change things?
i just tried to send a message to myself from .mac to my work account with the suggested title and text and did not get it. sending it from my work account to my .mac account did get through.
Worked just fine for me
use the “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” in subject line.
if you put it in just the body… it WILL go through.
the filter is going by the subject line.
I did put it in the Subject line…….sends and receives it with no problems
Just tried sending it from my me.com account to a gmail account and back…..no issues. Received them immediately.
So either Apple is allowing that one through now to quell the growing concern or y’all are having problems with your individual ISP’s
Just so we’re clear, you need to be using MobileMe Mail online in order for the message to pass through Apple’s outbound filtering. If you send it using IMAP on your computer, there’s no way for Apple to filter. They don’t even seen the message.
Or am I missing something?
You’re missing something. Even with IMAP, Apple still has to forward the message… They’re not forwarding, somehow.
I just tried sending to myself from Mail.app on Snow Leopard using the offending phrase in both subject and body and no dice. No message received.
Can I buy a Tin Foil Hat online? Amazon maybe?
LOL good one.
You really have to make your own. The one’s on Amazon don’t work. It’s all a plot by Amazon.
http://zapatopi.net/afdb/
Also, WTF is going on in Frankfurt and Brussels that needs censoring?
I admit, I tried too. If this turns out to be a prank, it worked! 😉
Having said that, my mail came through perfect to both a .nl and a .com address. Nothing to see here…..
Tried several different times with various combinations of sending and receiving email accounts and aliases (.me, .mac, even gmail) with zero problems. Most emails arrived almost instantaneously.
Tried to replicate problem here in Amsterdam. Mail received without issues. Seems to be a USA-only problem then? Not that that would make it less serious …
I tried it with the “growing…” statement in the subject line and it never showed up… Something is stinking in Cupertino.
I put growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels in the deject line and sent it to myself from me.com to my ATT acct. Worked fine.
I had no problems after trying all mentioned methods.
I received all the sent emails as did my friends.
Just tried it from the US with “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” in the subject line. Received the email at a different account i8n about 1 minute. I think this is a hoax
no if you read the article, and the original link there, going back to june 30th.
and read MDN’s update. couldn’t send it before, can now.
Just sent myself an email with both subject and content of “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels”. Message appeared in my Sent folder and in my Inbox. I use the mac.com extension. My ISP is Verizon.
Just tried it, no problems.
this report is coming via The Register – historically, always biased against Apple – more FUD. The Register is still thinking M$ and mp3 players are still in the game
It’s not FUD if it reproducible!
Actually the register has some contributors who like apple and some who don’t. They are quite balanced overall.
Just sent “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” in subject and body, from my .mac address to a different .me address. It never arrived.
Sent “test message” from/to the same; it arrived instantly.
I’m connected via VPN, which I’d think rules out my ISP as the filterer.