“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.
in the u.s., using various combinations of my gmail, mac and work accounts for to and from accounts, subject line and text i NEVER get the message when sent from .mac with the suggested subject line but vanilla text in body and always getting it when sent from the other two. the recipient address does not change anything.
Tested it here in US with Mobileme acct – no problem – messages received right away.
Tested it here in US with my MobileMe acct – message NOT received AT ALL.
Most of the readers here seem to be against the nanny state in reference to government as am I. I also do not want any company deciding what my private e-mail account can contain as long as it is not illegal.
Same thing with iOS apps. Some Zinio content that is available on the Mac is not available on iOS devices. It’s not Zinio- it’s Apple.
Not cool.
I sent “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” using mobile me and it went right through. I thought maybe it went through because I was sending it to myself, so I sent it to a gmail account and it went through as well.
I just sent emails to & from my Yahoo & .me accounts – success all around
I tried this as well. Tried multiple combinations from my .me account to gmail and work with multiple cominations of subject/body/etc with the text “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels”. All messages went through.
I used the phrase “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” in subject line.
Sent out email via .mac email address with the supposed censored subject line, and it arrived in my inbox almost instantaneously.
Hey, MDN, how ’bout not jumping to conclusions / making (wrong!) assumptions about things!!!
Glad it works for you. Wish that made it for for me too, but alas, it doesn’t.
I just tested sending to myself with my MobileMe account and the message was NOT delivered. So, it would seem the behavior is as the article suggests, but not consistently so.
Hanlon’s razor comes to mind: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
This isn’t the first time the MobileMe email service was operating in a flakey manner, so let’s not assume Apple is applying some sort of content filter before we consider that something is simply broken.
In short, let’s see what Apple has to say about this before we all jump to conclusions.
Thanks for the FUD, MDN.
maybe if you tried to research the story… you’d find out the story is actually old. and you CAN find that prior to the article MDN posted… you could reproduce it.
if you read the update, you’d see that the OLD messages will not go through, but it looks like the filter has been removed.
Just sent to and from @me address from and to a non-@me address a message containing “English Defense League immigrant treatment islamophobic failure of multiculturalism.”
No constraints on this language.
Just tested this myself going between my .Mac address and my company address.
No discernible delay and delivered in 39 seconds.
Look guys…
MMe messes up sometimes with messages being delayed. If you take the number of messages sent in a day, if 1 in 100,000 are delayed, there are thousands of delays per day – even one in 1 million will result in 100s to 1000s of delays per day.
Sooner or later it the laws of probability will produce something such as this, where the email sent appears to be politically motivated. This is not to say that there definitively is NOT a censorship going on, only that the APPEARANCE of such is a possibility on just statistical – probabilistic order.
Before jumping the gun, is there any other evidence of censorship? Any other messages with political content blocked?
Get a grip before jumping on tabloid headlines!
Exactly, thanks for the sanity check.
Thanks for the support. 🙂
This is a classic example of jumping to an unwarranted conclusion. I do understand the concern. But as Buffalo Springfield told us, “Paranoia strikes deep!” If things keep going in the direction they’re presently headed, we will have to combat censorship from our ISPs. But for now, I think we’re still OK.
Well, I’ve tried it twice from my .mac to my work – one earlier and one just now. Neither have made it. But an email with “Growing Hostility between Brussels and Frankfurt” made it out just fine. So either this is a very dumb filter or it is simply a fine little glitch someone has found. I think it is more likely the latter.
Not good at all!
Either Apple is censoring or MobileMe email sucks. Either way Apple is looking like Micrsoft and Google combined on this one. Once you lose trust it’s hard to recover. And I am a big Apple fan. Right now I am “there in the corner, losing my reli…”.
Apple may be testing some NSA/CIA software filters to identify and optionally block terrorist or activist communications or new spam filters and the phrase in question just triggered the system. Personally, I’d be delighted if Mobile Me could block all email that begins “Dearest One…” or Meet singles in your area.
I just sent myself an email from MobileMe to another email address of mine the “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” subject line and it was delivered just fine…
And has anyone ever thought that the phrase just might be tripping a spam filter for some reason?
Do you REALLY THINK Apple is filtering criticism of Frankfurt and Brussels???
I am very much opposed to censorship.
When my freedom of speech is inhibited in private conversation, I will go absolutely ape shit!
This better not be real!
Took a minute, but my message with a subject of “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” did arrive properly. Message sent from MobileMe online, not through Mail.app.
Just sent “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” and “growing hostility against Washington and Austin” to my gmail account, work account and a friend’s yahoo mail account. all came through great with just a bit or delay on the second subject line test.
Get a grip folks.
Much ado about nothing.
No problem here in the UK. I wonder if it’s being labelled as junk mail for some people.
“increasing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” made it through…
“growing hostility between Frankfurt and Brussels” made it through
So, CLEARLY THIS IS A GLITCH! Not some kind of Big Brother Filtering. CODE IS HUGE! Man’s ability to fully understand his binary creation is limited!
I’m going to continue to use my mail.
Let me know if you don’t receive any email I send you!
I hear that there is growing hostility against Brussels and Frankfurt.
I sent “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” in the subject and I just received an email back saying…”You’re not kidding”….go figure.
I just send a message to myself with “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” as both the subject line, and the message body, and it was delivered immediately.
wow… I was going crazy last week because of something very similar to this, We had an email conversation regarding a charity in Haiti, we have mention a couple of high profiles names in the subject line and some of the email wouldn’t go trough sent from my .mac account, I called Apple, all my test messages sent fine but the one regarding Haiti where all lost.
This is absolutely crazy!
Anyone who has used MobileMe for e-mail knows how glitchy it is. Mail sent and never received was nothing new for me when I was a member.
Sent the subject line “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels”:
-via .mac and .me to my Hover Mail sub-domain .. Not received
-Sent from Hovermail to .me/.Mac .. Not received
-sent from gmail to .me .. Not received
Using imap for each
Rather than Apple filtering the mail, it seems just as likely that some of you people are on a terrorist watch list. 🙂
in OS X 1.0 through 2.0 Mail would not send email that had a return on a line at the 78th character (the end of an ascii line of code).
it was fixed eventually except in CJK character sets it also cropped up (CJK are Chinese-Japanese-Korean fonts)
this is likely a similar problem of some sort.
It’s likely a server-side issue in this case though, as the behavior is identical using both webmail and Mail.app.
I tried it and it worked fine. Also tried subject lines like, “I hate gays”, “liberals suck because they are stupid”, “fighting in Sudan” and a few others and everything was received. My guess is this is a spam filter issue.
Did my comment get censored?
How ironic, if so…
It was a statement that I am opposed to censorship, especially in private conversation.
I sent a test message to myself, with “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” asbith the subject line and the body, and I received it in seconds.
I sent my message from my iPhone, if that makes a difference.
This is likely just a problem with Apple’s Spam filters people. Relax. Report it to Apple and let them work it out.
I suspect a glitchy spam filter.
went thru fine. No problem.
I just sent a new message, timestamped.
Still has not shown up..
I’ve tested and even the phrase “growing hostility against” (no quotes) in the subject and body will make the message forward fail…
In both subject and body, using Mail.app on Snow Leopard:
– “growing hostility” is fine,
– “hostility” is fine,
– “hostility against” is fine, but
– “growing hostility against” fails.
I didn’t test them all, but in several tests, MobileMe webmail mirrored the behavior with Mail.app.
Like a couple people have pointed out, it’s likely a misconfigured spam filter, but it’s still very interesting.
– “growing hostility against” also failed on iPhone
Wonder if THIS phrase is the culprit?
maybe the spam filter has been fixed, but like a domain server change it takes a while to fully clear out.
I think we should try the subject line:
“Growing hostility towards Apple illustrated in hokie anti-MobileMe campaign”
🙂
I tried the “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels” in subject and body…and it was not delivered.
I then tried “growing hostility in Egypt” and I got that one.
Very strange…
how about a little real journalism here, like, you know, getting the facts before jumping to conclusions, or even repeating alarmist rumors?
the Register is a notorious Apple-bashing POS rag. and MDN … well.
spam filters are always problematic. there is no perfect algorithm. the one at my company blocks some stuff for reasons you can’t figure out once in a while.
actually the register was just reporting on this from another source.. Macintouch.com
if you read that article, it’s been going on for a while, and there are other terms that are getting blocked from outgoing emails.
but “how about a little real journalism here, like, you know, getting the facts before jumping to conclusions”
seems to fit you… since YOU didn’t get any facts…
what are you talking about? i read the article. the linked Register article plainly states: “Reg reader Mike Conley, who was the first to tell us of the problem …” and then later links to the MIT forum (not an “article”) Conley started.
none of which relates to the point anyway: get the facts. all we know now from individual reports is, sometimes that phrase is blocked and sometimes it is not. we don’t know why/how. we certainly do not know if it is intentional – the rumor – or an artifact of a spam filter or maybe an “objectionable content” filter.
these are all good questions, whether YOU like them or not.
the Register just REPORTED what they were told. THEY didn’t make the story up. they REPORTED the story FROM another source.
the Macintouch thread dates back to the 1st. if you do other searching, you’ll find the guy talking about this on june 30th.
I said they were reporting on it FROM another source. which THEY DID….
and if you read, MDN and others HAVE been able to reproduce this.
when the Register posted the story, they were the first big news site to actually report it. and it looks like it didn’t take long for apple to correct it.
None of which relates to the point anyway.
perhaps you missed the initial MDN headline: “Do Not Use Mobile Me Email Service”. which they took down with the update. that was pure rumor mongering.
Which if you could READ…. was a Quote.
“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.”
that’s irrelevant. putting such an inflammatory statement in a headline with no disclaimer or qualification is rumor mongering ipso facto.
you just can’t face it. good night.
Both ways worked within 15 seconds for me to and from several of my Gmail addresses and my mobileme. My sister got message thru her mobileme acct and so did my brother in law. No problem whatsoever. I think this is BS.
Exactly as you describe. Sent via me.com through desktop Apple mail, I copied and pasted your “hostility” and “forty-eight” subjects into my subject line. Sure enough, the first is lost in the ozone (not recieved and no Bcc) and the second came through instantly.
It’s probably some ‘News of the World’ journalist hacking into the email system, reading your messages and then deleting some of them to make room for more 😉
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14036673
NewsCorp/RupertMurdoch/N.o.t.W. scum that they are
I just tried sending the sample test message. Successful when sent via my TIme Warner Cable account. Message was received almost immediately. The message sent via my .mac /.me account has still not come through after 20 minutes.
My hypothesis:The subject line ended up in some spam filter. Apple’s filtering spam rather aggressively. I still cannot send email messages to a .mac/.me account with my office phone number in the signature. (Talked with Apple about that. Yes, it’s the phone number triggering, but we cannot do anything about that, sorry. I suspect that it is because of my office mate a few years back who used the same phone number. But he was also prone to hackers. He had the worst infection of his PC that I have ever seen. He couldn’t resist free offers.)
during my earlier searches on this today, i found Apple also started filtering emails with no subject, and a single link in the body of the email…
I, too, could not replicate the problem. The message I sent to myself with the offending subject line went through fine. So did a test message with the subject line: “stinking nazi motherfuckers eat christians for breakfast”. Very offensive, but no problem getting delivered.
I just sent “growing turd in redmond to be released soon” to myself. Not only was the message delivered without issue, I also receieved an automated response that reads, “uh huh.”
Instead of “growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels”, try using “growing hostility against Frankfurters and Brussel Sprouts”. Burp!
# 1 Issue is that Frankfurters and Brussel sprouts do NOT go together. Try entering ketchup, and don’t even think about spam and brussel sprouts.
Mmmmmm, Spammmmm!!!
If they thought something was terrorist material, they should flag it internally to proper authorities to follow up on, but I think it still has to be sent.
Legally, i’m sure that you are correct. But legality is evidently irrelevant where our esteemed gov’t is concerned. Ditto for the justice system.
It’s the government doing it.
I have not sent this particular test message since so many others already have. But I had noted a couple days ago that several of my MM emails were not being received. I had thought it was a problem with the particular location (computer). I don’t remember the content.
I will propose a scenario (likely or not) that some recent clandestine court order to allow the government to monitor emails for particular words/ideas may have been improperly implemented causing this issue where email users are now alerted. It is possible that only certain specific Apple servers were involved which is why some people appear to have no problems, while others do. I would agree that this is potentially a very bad development. It may have been going on for years, but without anyone being aware since there were no technical glitches prior to this one.
I hope Apple responds credibly to this issue.
…and I don’t believe this is a malfunctioning spam filter. It just doesn’t have the feel for any kind of spam filtering issue to me, though Apple could say that it is. Really, in well over 11 years using iTools, .Mac, and MM email, I cannot personally recall one issue of spam filtering for outgoing mail.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2704340?threadID=2704340
Earlier this year.
Thanks, FTB. Read it. I can see my emails have been too mild. Nonetheless, this remains a serious issue. I hope that pressure will get Apple to modify what it is doing… or how it is doing it.
I just tried it (for real this time) with the ‘growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels’ phrase in the subject line and it went through instantly.
As one poster mentioned…maybe it is a Canada thing though I doubt it.
In anycase why would Apple fool around like this? There is only a downside to it, nothing positive….so I call hoax.
Rumors of widespread email surveillance have existed for years. I have been tempted on more than one occasion to begin adding an invisible “signature” containing a few dozen highly-inflammatory words and phrases to all my outgoing email just to see if I ever get a knock on my door. Of course, if such a thing ever happened, all of my recipients could potentially be targeted as well. This is what stops me, but it certainly would be fascinating to test the hypothesis that we are all under electronic surveillance 24 hours a day.
As of 4:45 Eastern time, both sending and receiving worked fine for me in the US.
I found out the hard way about two months ago that e-mail’s containing the phrase “Strip Club” was being blocked, while “Gentelman’s Club” was not.
just tried it and there was no problem. Went through instantly.
I sometimes find that mail doesn’t go through or goes through very slowly. I’ll click on something and get a message saying an email was just sent to me but I don’t see it for days if at all. Other things come through instantly. I wonder if it has something to do with our creaky email system. Though that doesn’t address the sensitivity to content.
This has been discussed on Macintouch since June. Nice lack of attribution by The Register. I’d be wary about calling the issue FUD based on typing in one phrase. It’s quite likely Apple has modified their outgoing mail filter settings to pass the phrase shown by now.
if you read the article…. they DID…..
half way down their article.
“Conloy started a thread on the problem on an Apple user forum. The post was picked up by Reg reader Harris Upham, who confirmed that censorship seems to be taking place.”
click on the thread… takes you to MIT.
I don`t know about filtering, but I have had problems with .me webmail loading on my Mac at home. Strangely enough I have no problem having it load on the peecee at school.
why would anyone ever want to filter outbound mail? If it’s outbound it’s not spam, unless you are a spammer…
I tried the following…
(1) Send email with Subject and body with ‘growing hostility against Frankfurt and Brussels’ from one .me account to another .me. account -> No luck.
(2) Send email with Subject and body with “Test” from one .me account to another .me. account -> Works fine!!
Retried both # 1 and #2 numerous times throughout the day –> same results.
As much as I love apple products, this is exactly the type of thing I worry about when a tech company becomes too large and begins exercising it’s power beyond acceptable realms. IMHO, this is very concerning if not outright scary. Apple def should publicly explain this.
No, they shouldn’t. That’s just engaging in paranoid debate. You never engage in debate with someone who’s more interested in being right than actually finding out the truth.
And Apple responding will bring more bad PR on them and drag it out into the mass media. Unless it makes mainstream media all by itself, Apple shouldn’t say a thing.
This is a filtering glitch. Apple has no benefit from politically filtering email. If they wanted do, you’d find a lot more mail was being filtered than a carefully crafted subject on Frankfurt and Brussels.
i agree. There’s something wrong. I was forwarding an account to me.com and all Facebook emails never made it to ME. Checked junk and spam on both ends. The Facebook emails are in the original mailbox. Other msgs get forwarded! I may just switch to gmail for everything. This is ridiculous!