Apple bows to China by censoring Taiwan flag emoji - Quartz

The Taiwan flag is still accessible through predictive features on the English keyboard (typing “Taiwan” and selecting the flag emoji), and for ... SkiptonavigationSkiptocontentDiscoverMembershipEmailsPodcastFieldGuidesPresentationsLatestTrendingObsessionsFeaturedSearchEditionsQuartzQuartzatWorkQuartzAfricaQuartzIndiaQuartzJapanMorefromQuartzAboutQuartzCareersDiversityandinclusionHelpcenterDownloadourappQuartzCreativeFollowQuartzFacebookTwitterInstagramYouTubeLinkedInDiscoverLatestObsessionsThesearethecoreobsessionsthatdriveournewsroom—definingtopicsofseismicimportancetotheglobaleconomy.FeaturedThesearesomeofourmostambitiouseditorialprojects.Enjoy!EmailsOuremailsaremadetoshineinyourinbox,withsomethingfresheverymorning,afternoon,andweekend.BecomeamemberFromourObsessionBecauseChinaChinaisstrivingforgloballeadership,andhastheeconomicclouttorealizeitsvision.ByMatthewDeSilvaTechreporterPublishedOctober7,2019Thisarticleismorethan2yearsold.InarecentupdatetoiOS13.1,Apple’siPhoneoperatingsystem,ApplereportedlyremovedtheTaiwaneseflagemojifromitskeyboardforusersinHongKongandMacau,China’stwospecialadministrativeregions.ApplemakesnomentionofthechangeinitsreleasenotesforiOS13.1.1.ThecompanydidnotimmediatelyreplytoQuartz’sinquiryaboutwhethertheChinesegovernmentrequestedcensorshipoftheTaiwaneseflag.Taiwanisanindependentlyrundemocracy,butChinaconsidersitpartofitsterritory.However,againstthebackdropofHongKong’spro-democracyprotests,themoveexemplifiescontinuedcorporatesubserviencetotheChinesegovernment.ApplehasblockedtheTaiwaneseflagemojiinmainlandChinasince2017.Foratime,thecodeformainlandcensorshipcausedsome iPhonestocrashwheneverthedevicestriedtodisplaytheTaiwaneseflag.(ApplefixedthatbuginJuly2018.)AppleishardlytheonlycompanytobendtoBeijing.Despiteemployeeprotests,GooglehasapparentlycontinuedworkonDragonfly,acensored,Chinese-tailoredversionofitssearchengine.Meanwhile,MicrosoftcensorsitselfforChinaonLinkedInandBing,Wiredhasreported.InAugust,QuartzreportedonByteDance(parentcompanyofvideo-sharingappTikTok)whichseeminglycensorstheHongKongprotestsfromitsplatform.Practicallyacrosstheboard,moneyoutweighspolitics.CompaniesprioritizeaccesstothemassiveChinesemarketoverdemocraticconcerns. AppleitselfhaskowtowedtoChineserequestsbefore.Mostrecently,theNationalBasketballAssociation (NBA)encounteredafirestormthisweekafterDarylMorey,generalmanageroftheHoustonRockets,tweetedhissupportforHongKong’sprotestors.AsChinesecompaniespulledsponsorshipsandTencentSportssuspendeditsbroadcastsofRocketsgames,theleaguequicklyissuedanapologytoChina.TheTaiwanflagisstillaccessiblethroughpredictivefeaturesontheEnglishkeyboard(typing“Taiwan”andselectingtheflagemoji),andforuserswhohavetheirphone’sregionsettoanywhereotherthanmainlandChina,Macau,orHongKong.Butultimately,theemoji’sabsencefromtheApplelibraryinChinaanditsspecialadministrativeregionssymbolizeshowtheCommunistPartyprojectsitsideology,eventhroughnon-Chinesecompanies.📬KickoffeachmorningwithcoffeeandtheDailyBrief(BYOcoffee).SignmeupByprovidingyouremail,youagreetotheQuartzPrivacyPolicy.CopyDiscoverLatestObsessionsEmailsMenuDiscoverMembershipEmailsPodcastFieldGuidesPresentationsLatestTrendingObsessionsFeaturedSearchEditionsQuartzQuartzatWorkQuartzAfricaQuartzIndiaQuartzJapanMorefromQuartzAboutQuartzCareersDiversityandinclusionHelpcenterDownloadourappQuartzCreativeFollowQuartzFacebookTwitterInstagramYouTubeLinkedInUpdateyourbrowserforthebestexperience.