The Apple Store in Hamburg, Germany.
Apple keeps a hidden list of around 100,000 words and phrases that its iPhone keyboard will not suggest to users, according to an independent researcher. The list includes political expressions such as “Dictator Trump” and “Sleepy Joe”, Reuters reported today.
The restrictions do not prevent users from typing these words themselves. Instead, they stop the keyboard from suggesting them through autocomplete and make them difficult to enter using swipe-typing, a feature that lets users form words by sliding a finger across the keyboard.
Derik Kauffman, founder of Blacklight, a start-up that checks scientific papers for errors, discovered the list in September after noticing some unusual differences in how the keyboard handled certain phrases.
For example, his iPhone struggled to recognise “bad boy” and “white man” when he used swipe-typing, but had no trouble with “bad girl” or “black man”.
Kauffman used AI coding tools to investigate the problem and eventually found a file buried inside Apple’s operating system. His conservative estimate puts the number of entries at around 100,000, excluding Chinese characters.
Most of the words and phrases are offensive or relate to subjects such as drugs, sex and violence.
But the list also contains political expressions from several countries, including “right wing conspiracy”, “Tibetan independence” and “United Ireland”. It also includes “occupied territories” in Hebrew and “immigration too high” in French.
Some of the restrictions appear inconsistent. For instance, the keyboard allows users to swipe-type “read smut” but not “read gay smut”.
Reuters tested a sample of the entries on an iPhone and found that the phrases were either missing from suggestions or difficult to enter through swipe-typing. Matt Suiche, an engineer at security company Tolmo, independently recovered the same list and found that it closely matched Kauffman’s findings.
*We have not independently tested the list.
Apple did not explain why political expressions were included, according to Reuters. The company said users can still type any word they want and that its keyboard is designed to avoid suggesting offensive or inappropriate language.
The findings have raised questions about how much control Apple should have over the words its keyboard recommends, particularly when the restrictions extend beyond profanity.
David Greene of the Electronic Frontier Foundation told Reuters that users should be informed about the list and given the option to change it.
“This is something that should not be secret,” Greene said.
Apple has faced criticism over its keyboard’s handling of swear words before. One well-known example is its tendency to replace “f*ck” with “ducking”, including in Apple’s own Notes app, where handwritten swear words have also been censored.
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