Something really weird is happening to iCloud emails. It turns out, Apple is straight up deleting emails sent from iCloud email accounts that have the phrase “barely legal teen” in them. Like, if you sent out an email that included that phrase in the body of the message, it would never be sent to the person. Huh?
Macworld UK spotted the weird behaviour and tested it out with the phrase, “My friend’s son is already allowed to drive his high-powered car. It’s ridiculous. He’s a barely legal teenage driver? What on earth is John thinking.” One email was sent just like that. It was never delivered. The other email amended the “a barely legal teenage” to “barely a legal teenage” and was successfully sent. The test was repeated with other emails that included the phrase “barely legal teen” and every time, the email was deleted and never sent.
Barely legal teen, if you needed a reminder on where the phrase comes from (which I’m sure you don’t but are going to make me describe it anyway), is a common description for porn that features young performers who look like they’ve just become ‘legal’ (or 18).
So what’s causing this overaggressive behaviour from Apple? Apple’s notorious anti-porn stance? Some weird quirk in the code? Apple told Macworld:
“Occasionally, automated spam filters may incorrectly block legitimate email,” an Apple spokesperson said. “If the customer feels that a legitimate message is blocked, we encourage customers to report it to AppleCare.”
What doesn’t exactly add up in that explanation is that these “barely legal teen” emails never even hit the spam box of the recipient. They’re just never sent because Apple nips them in the bud. Deleting emails like that, I think, is called censoring. [Macworld UK via VentureBeat]