This is really quite sad, actually. It goes like this: A political satire app feature the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Mark Fiore — the first such award for an online journalist — was rejected from Apple’s App Store because it violated Apple’s policy against “ridiculing public figures.” (You’ll note above that we’re not necessarily worried about that policy here.)
Anyhoo, Apple CEO Steve Jobs himself blessed the app, saying the rejection was a mistake. That brings us to today, and Jobs’ response to an Apple customer who expressed concern about Apple playing the role of “moral police.” Said customer’s major concern:
“I’m all for keeping porn out of kids hands. Heck – I’m all for ensuring that I don’t have to see it unless I want to. But… that’s what parental controls are for. Put these types of apps into categories and allow them to be blocked by their parents should they want to.”
In his response (Jobs sure has been writing back to the commoners a lot lately), he just couldn’t help but fire more blanks at Android.
“Fiore’s app will be in the store shortly. That was a mistake. However, we do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy and [sic] Android phone.”
Yes, Steve, we’ll be the first to admit that the Android Market’s a bit of a mess and is badly in need of a makeover, and something needs to be done about all the bad porn apps. (If we’re gonna be stuck with it, can we at least get some quality smut, and maybe put it in a controlled category?)
But for Apple, the maker of arguably the world’s best mobile browser, to pretend that it’s not also the world’s greatest mobile porn portal is petty, misleading and — frankly — more than a bit disappointing. This isn’t the first time Jobs has fired this unloaded gun. And we’re willing to bet it won’t be the last. [TechCrunch via TiPB]