Apple allows users personalize your devices by recording a name, a phrase, a number… A service that is subject to a series of terms that the company does not allow. In the case of China, the number of terms that can be used depends not only on Apple, but also on the Chinese government.
As stated from Citizen Lab, the number of censored terms that cannot be recorded on Apple devices has gradually been exported to Taiwan and Hong Kong. According to this research, the number of words that Apple cannot record for the devices it sells in China it is 1.105.
Most of the censored words apply to devices that Apple sells in mainland China. Apple can't use political terms, explicit sexual content, vulgar words in addition to the censored terms in most countries.
43% of the censored words, 458, refer to the political system of the country, the Communist Party in power, senior officials of the Communist Party or the government and dissidents. Of those 458 words, 174 are also being applied in Hong Kong while in Taiwan, only 29 of them are censured.
Citizen Lab claims that public documents related to Apple's censorship do not explain how the keywords included are determined, suggesting that Apple may have overstepped its legal obligations in mainland China and Hong Kong, where censorship is not regulated by law.
Jane Horvath, Apple's chief privacy officer, has sent a letter to Citizen Lab in which she affirms the technology giant does not allow engraving requests that are considered illegal according to the local laws, rules and regulations of the countries and regions.
Furthermore, it states that Apple manages the recordings independently in each country and that there is no global list that contains a single set of words or terms and that their teams review local laws by conducting a cultural sensitivity assessment.