Apple, Corporations and Censorship

Every now and then, in our so called free world, we must talk about censorship. This is a story of media and the freedom of the press, which is put in danger, in the US and elsewhere -in fact, everywhere- not by one government, but by the very world-class companies who govern the distribution of media across the globe.

Icon for censorship
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I’m talking about Apple, here, and the iPhone/iPad publishing scheme. An incident a few days ago, involving Apple and Mark Fiore, a Pulitzer-winning cartoon author, shows how far-reaching and uncontrolled are corporations in the US.

The antecedent is Amazon erasing Orwell’s 1984 book (the NY Times reported) from the Kindle of many readers who had bought the e-book. This action resulted from a copyright claim, and Amazon later declared it took the wrong decision. But still, they could in fact apply censorship upon their clients. Not only: since the Kindle is used all over the world, such censorship was actually stronger and farther-reaching than any one government can possibly exercise. Amazon apologized, in the end. And Apple, too, has apopolized at the censorship it imposed upon the works of Mark Fiore, the Pulitzer-winning author who publishes satirical vignettes and animations.

Apple in fact did not accept Fiore’s iPhone App containing his cartoons in December. This outraged the media, and the Nieman Journalism Lab wrote about his app’s rejection. Which prompted Steve Jobs to publicly apologize (“This is a mistake that’s being fixed“, he said) and ask Fiore to resubmit his app (How much control will Apple have over news app content?, CNet News, 16 April 2010).

The recent succes of Apple’s iPad, and the promise of many media outlets of wonderful versions of their publications for the iPad has propelled this story into new territory. Apple has got an immense power, with its App accepting scheme, to reject all sort of media which at its sole discretion, it deems not fit to publish. This has consequences in terms or real, global censorship that even the worst ayatollahs had never dreamt.

Says Ryan Chittum of the Columbia Journalism Review, which issued a call to media companies to be more distant with Apple in the future:

Look, let’s face it. The iPad is the most exciting opportunity for the media in many years. But if the press is ceding gatekeeper status, even if it’s only nominally, over its speech, then it is making a dangerous mistake. Unless Apple explicitly gives the press complete control over its ability to publish what it sees fit, the news media needs to yank its apps in protest.

Will the Press maintain its gatekeeper’s status? Will it cede it?

Some people said that Apple is not a public service and thus not obligated to respect the free press. What? Am i reading well? Case dismissed: the Freedom of the Press is based upon free distributing channels, meaning that the prining presses that actually print the New York Times do not have the power to stop the paper from being printed, and the trains and airplanes which transport the paper do not have the power to refuse carrying it, based on its content. Actually, in real world terms, they can. But they’d lose their business.

Apple has changed the distribution business when it first began controlling music. It stole that distribution from the big recording industry -with its approval. Now, Apple is stealing the same distribution channel from the media publishing industry. Will it realize it is being robbed?

{Compiled from CNET News and La Repubblica}

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About Antonio Vantaggiato

Professor, web2.0 enthusiast, and didactic chef.
This entry was posted in abierto, media, philosophic-discourse, social and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to Apple, Corporations and Censorship

  1. This is really serious. As Chuck Colson says, (my emphases) More and more, the forces of political correctness and intolerance are seeking …

  2. antoniovantaggiato says:

    Jim,

    indeed it is a concern. I mean, we shouldn't be paranoid, but vigilant.

    Apple has its own right at doing what it does. But the media must not fall into the iTunes trap (like the disco industry did).

    As you say, the Internet gave us (or we took thru it) the power to compose and break down the pieces of information and distribute it at will. There's the definite danger this beautiful thing is dissolving! I am afraid that the beat generation that gave birth to the Internet (with its intrinsic openness) is giving place to the neoliberal one. omg: see ning!

  3. antoniovantaggiato says:

    Jim,
    indeed it is a concern. I mean, we shouldn't be paranoid, but vigilant.
    Apple has its own right at doing what it does. But the media must not fall into the iTunes trap (like the disco industry did).

    As you say, the Internet gave us (or we took thru it) the power to compose and break down the pieces of information and distribute it at will. There's the definite danger this beautiful thing is dissolving! I am afraid that the beat generation that gave birth to the Internet (with its intrinsic openness) is giving place to the neoliberal one. omg: see ning!

  4. jimgroom says:

    Antonio,

    You make a great case here for the larger picture about Apple and media distribution, and you bring it all home quite poignantly. We are giving over the channels to the corporations, and it can be argued that has already happened with Fox 5 news and the like—and indeed it has—but that has been why the potential and power of the internet was so great, to re-distribute the corporate stranglehold over the news and broadcasting, and I wonder if we aren't turning the web in to that much more TV with these recent moves.

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