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"Phone Story" app gets ban in Apple iTunes Store
Developing an iPhone app that criticized how Apple does business, it is no wonder such app would get the ban. Phone Story, is the latest victim to be on Apple's ban list as it criticizes the company in the form of four games with regards to human rights violation, gadget consumerism and creating e-waste.
Produced by Molleindustria, Phone Story is a smartphone game that "attempts to provoke a critical reflection on its own technological platform". From the game description, it consists of four educational games whereby player symbolically complicit in coltan extraction in Congo, outsourced labor in China, e-waste in Pakistan and gadget consumerism in the West.
The developer claims that Phone Story is intended to serve as a reminder for users of the impact, though indirectly accusing Apple of human rights violation via dangerous extraction of coltan, a mineral used in manufacturing of consumer electronics products, worker abuse under questionable conditions at companies such as Foxconn, and launching new products every year thus creating more e-waste. Apple has thus ban the app citing reasons including the depiction of violence or abuse against children and excessively objectionable or crude content.
Source: PC Magazine
