Called out:
After offering racist, sexist ringtones for years, Apple agrees to take them down this week, citing ‘poor taste’
Under pressure, Apple stops selling sexist and racist ringtones.
Apple has always meticulously policed its content — especially in its App Store, where what gets uploaded and downloaded can be something of a free-for-all. Often, in the store or the iTunes library, a team from Apple will swiftly remove content for broken links, ugly design or even microscopic mentions of the company’s competitors.
And yet racist and sexist apps and ringtones have remained for use and for sale — in some cases for years — despite clearly violating Apple’s policies prohibiting “defamatory, offensive (or) mean-spirited” content against religious, cultural or ethnic groups.
“Treat yo phone like it was a crack pipe — set it down.”
One of the ringtones on iTunes
“Warning: Do not pick up yo phone under any circumstances,” says a voice in a ringtone called Don’t Answer (Successful Black Man Meme). “Treat yo phone like it was a crack pipe — set it down.” The app was released in January 2013 and available for purchase at $1.29 until this week. “It’s a wrong, stanky, evil phone call. Don’t even touch it. Leave it ’lone.”
Kate Antoniades, a freelance writer and editor in upstate New York, created a Change.org petition this summer to have the racist ringtones removed after she came across one on iTunes featuring a faux Asian accent encouraging users to answer their “linging” phone.
Antoniades is married to a man of Chinese descent. She has a mixed-race son. He’s 5.
“My first thought was, ‘Wow, I can’t believe Apple is allowing these to be sold,’ because they’re just incred-
ibly racist,” she said. “What kind of person would create these? And what kind of person would buy them? And if my son somehow heard one of these, how would I even begin to explain why these are made and why some people think it’s funny?”
Other ringtones featured “funny Asian” messages with stereotypical East Asian accents, heavily accented Indian voices saying “Thank you, come again,” and messages with a Spanish lilt shouting “Arriba!” Apps containing libraries of “funny” ringtones were left unchecked. Among those, many also crassly referenced women’s body parts and referred to the supposed caller as a “slut” or other four-letter words.
Unlike Google Play, there is no way to flag content as inappropriate on iTunes, though Apple encourages users to contact their customer support team. The Change.org petition was published in July. As of Wednesday, Antoniades had nearly 2,300 signatures.
The ringtones, Antoniades wrote, “are unquestionably racist and offensive. They perpetuate old, tired stereotypes about the way East Asian people speak English, and Apple should be ashamed to profit from their ongoing sales.”
On Monday, after a call from The Chronicle, Apple removed dozens of offending ringtones and at least one app from HaHaas Comedy that allowed users to access long lists of “funny Asian” and “gangsta Indian” ringtones.
Some, like the ringtone titled “For Best Friend (Ghetto)” by Asian Andy, had been available for purchase for more than four years.
Others, like the “Crazy Excited Mexican Pick Up Now” ringtone created by Class of ’93 Comedy Productions, were uploaded as recently as June.
A spokesman from Apple said it took the ringtones down this week because they were “in poor taste” and violated the company’s terms of use policies.
According to Apple, the most common reason apps get rejected is not providing enough information, which leads to 14 percent of all submitted apps getting the boot. More than half of rejections are due to “other reasons,” though Apple did not elaborate.
In May, an update to Michael Flarup’s news alert app, Breaking, was rejected by Apple because a tiny mention of the word “Android” appeared in a screenshot on its App Store page. This, Apple said, violated the terms of its policy against apps or metadata that mentions the name of “any other mobile platform.”
Flarup’s update was axed.
“We understand the guidelines and the fact that Apple has to draw the line somewhere,” Flarup wrote in an e-mail. “In this particular instance however, the guidelines come off particularly silly as Breaking is essentially a lightweight news reader. ... It’s got nothing to do with the app itself.”
A copyright issue with GIF curating app GIF Finder and the rejection of boating app SeaNavUS for its mention of Pebble support in its App Store description also led to high-profile takedowns that seemed to demonstrate Apple’s heavyhanded policing of its App Store.
Ringtones and music are subjected to manual policing, along with algorithms that search for offensive content.
Still available in the iTunes store: A ringtone called “Warning, Slut Calling.” For 29 seconds, it announces that “the person calling you is an absolute slut” as alarm bells sound in the background.
“What kind of person would create these? And what kind of person would buy them?” Kate Antoniades, who started a petition to get Apple to remove offensive ringtones