The controversy surrounding the Confederate flag has passed all reasonable bounds. Last week amid mass refusal to use the symbols of the South during the Civil war Apple started to block the image of the flag in the App Store. It’s hard to blame the company, rather we are talking about mass hysteria in American society.
There are many characters that cause negative associations of citizens of individual countries. Moreover, there are attributes that the majority of people consider the embodiment of evil. Example – the flags of Germany during the Third Reich. However, nobody comes to mind is to completely hide these symbols. They may be prohibited by law, but if you are part of a historical reconstruction, for example in games or film, are used freely.
But the Confederate flag, which was only a banner of one of the armies of the South during the events of 60-ies of the XIX century, suddenly became taboo in the worst sense of the word. Recall that two weeks ago in the town of Charleston man named Dylan Ruth broke into the Church and killed 9 people. He admitted that he did this motivated by racial hatred. Since February is American published in networks calls for the massacre of black compatriots.
Then to block the sale of the flag decided retailers – Amazon, Wal-Mart, eBay, Sears… It is somehow possible to explain how and discussion of the rejection of the symbols of the South, presented at public institutions of some States of the USA.
But Apple’s decision may only cause confusion. The company, fearing for his reputation, decided to remove the Confederate flag from the App Store. Since then, several game developers on historical subjects reported that their content has been blocked and is no longer distributed through an online platform Apple.
Apple representatives say that disappeared from the App Store only those uses of the flag, which were filled with malice. But application developers do not agree with such statement of a question.
Apple suggests that the right to placement in the App Store should not be deprived of those programs where the Confederate flag is demonstrated for educational purposes. Maybe it is on this principle the content and decided to return. At least a part of developments that have been removed from the App Store already returned to the store. Among them, the strategy of Ultimate General: Gettysburg and Civil War: 1863. The developers of the latter, however, had to remove the Confederate flag with icons and screenshots.
Difficult to describe the actions of Apple something other than mass hysteria in American society. In any case it is encouraging that the company initiated discussions with the authors of the applications the ability to return content to the store.
