Steven Musil
CNet ^[1]
Sept 1, 2012

Apple has rejected an iPhone ^[2] app designed to keep track of fatalities caused by U.S. drone strikes for its “objectionable” content.

The company withheld App Store approval for Drones+, an app that sends text messages to iPhones whenever the media reports casualties resulting from a drone strike and shows users the locations of drone strikes on a Google map. (See brief video demonstration below.) Apple has rejected the app three times this summer, the most recent of which cited App Store guidelines that prohibit “objectionable” content, according to Josh Begley, the app’s creator.

“We found that your app contains content that many audiences would find objectionable, which is not in compliance with the App Store guidelines,” the company wrote Monday in an e-mail to Begley, according to a Los Angeles Times report ^[3].

CNET has contacted Apple for comment and will update this report when we learn more.

Begley, a graduate student at New York University, told The Times that he understood Apple’s position.

“I totally understand it from Apple’s perspective,” he said. “They don’t want to have anything that could be considered controversial by anyone. I get that, and I understand that.”

Full article here ^[1]