Blockchain-based file-sharing and payment network LBRY has alleged that tech giant Apple forced it to filter certain search terms during the COVID-19 crisis in an apparent rejection of free speech .
In a November 28 Publish On Twitter, LBRY alleges that it has been asked to censor anything related to COVID-19, especially vaccines and the human origins of the virus, or have its apps removed from the Apple Store.
“We had to create a list of over 20 terms to not show results, only on Apple devices. If we didn’t filter the terms, our apps wouldn’t be allowed in the store,” the crypto firm claimed. .
LBRY is a decentralized content sharing platform that allows artists, filmmakers, writers and other content creators to maintain full artistic and financial control over their work. Its video-sharing website Odysee is one of its best-known apps, but it’s unclear whether that app was implicated in the alleged censorship.
The blockchain company made the revelation in response to a post from Elon Musk, who said Apple had “mostly stopped” advertising on Twitter due to concerns about content on social media platforms, prompting LBRY to share his experience with Apple during the COVID -19 pandemic.
During Covid, Apple required our apps to filter certain search terms so they were not returned. If we wouldn’t filter the terms, our apps wouldn’t be allowed in the store.
Apple may make good products, but they’ve been against free speech for a while.
— LBRY (@LBRYcom) November 28, 2022
LBRY also alleges that when some of its users included images of “Pepe the Frog” in videos, Apple “rejected” them.
Pepe the Frog is an internet meme of a green anthropomorphic frog originating in 2005, which has since been adopted by protest groups in Hong Kong and used in political ideology.
The crypto firm said “Apple can make great products, but they’ve been against free speech for a while.”
Cointelegraph has contacted Apple for comment but has not received a response at the time of publication.
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Meanwhile, discussions around censorship on Twitter continued to rage.
Musk took over Twitter on Oct. 28 and teases the release of the “Twitter Files,” supposed evidence of a concentrated effort by the previous Twitter administration to stifle free speech on the platform.
Twitter files about suppressing free speech will soon be posted on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Musk’s takeover of Twitter and the platform’s subsequent projects have seen some users seek out decentralized social networks as an alternative.
Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey recently unveiled a new Bitcoin-powered Bluesky Social app as part of a decentralized response to Twitter.
The October 18 announcement came about three years after Dorsey announced the initiative, with the aim of giving users control over their data and being able to move it between platforms without permission.
