Apple Maintains Secret List of 100,000 Words Excluded From iPhone Autofill
· Technology · LiveMint, TechCrunch, CNET
Apple maintains an undisclosed multilingual list of nearly 100,000 words and phrases that its iPhone keyboard avoids suggesting through predictive text, autocorrect, and swipe-typing features. Discovered by independent researcher Derik Kauffman, the list primarily flags vulgar, offensive, or drug- and sex-related terms, alongside politically sensitive expressions. The English-language exclusions reportedly include phrases like 'dictator Trump', 'sleepy Joe', 'right wing conspiracy', 'Tibetan independence', and 'United Ireland'. In other languages, the keyboard flags region-specific terms such as 'Modi braggart' and 'Rahul is Pappu' in Hindi, 'immigration too high' in French, and 'occupied territories' in Hebrew. Apple told Reuters that users can still manually type any specific word or phrase and override the predictive text suggestions.
Why it matters
The disclosure highlights how major technology platforms curate predictive text algorithms to filter political content and sensitive speech, raising questions about transparency in digital censorship.
Read the original report — LiveMint
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