Apple keyboard avoids suggesting political and sensitive phrases

Apple’s iPhone keyboard avoids suggesting certain words and phrases through predictive text and swipe typing, including political expressions such as “Dictator Trump” and “Sleepy Joe,” according to researcher Derik Kauffman. The words can still be entered manually, Apple said. Kauffman said he found a hidden multilingual list in iOS after noticing that swipe typing struggled with phrases including “bad boy” and “white man.” He estimated that it contains about 100,000 words, phrases and variations, excluding Chinese characters. The estimate and the examples are his findings; Apple has not disclosed the list’s size or contents. The reported entries include vulgar or offensive language and terms related to drugs, sex and violence, as well as political and culturally sensitive phrases. Other English examples cited by Kauffman include “right wing conspiracy,” “Tibetan independence” and “United Ireland.” He also reported restrictions on phrases in Hindi, French and Hebrew, including “Modi braggart,” “immigration too high” and “occupied territories.” Apple said its keyboard is designed to avoid suggesting words that may be inappropriate or offensive. The company also said users can...