Apple is bending over backward to appease mainland China with its engraving policy

Earlier today we told you that the iPhone has become red hot in China with Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty estimating a 79% year-over-year increase in July shipments. Speaking of Apple and Asian markets including China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, the tech giant has been censoring the engraving of certain phrases and numbers on its products in that region of the world. Apple offers engraving on the iPad, AirPods, Apple Pencil, iPod Touch, and AirTags.

According to researchers at The Citizen Lab (via The Verge), Apple has been too inconsistent with its rules that ban engraving derogatory, racist, or sexual content on the aforementioned devices. For example, in mainland China, Apple banned ten Chinese names surnamed Zhang for no particular reason. Additionally, the report notes that in that same market, Apple censors engravings related to China's political system names of its leaders, names of dissidents, religious terms, and more. 

Citizen Lab analyzed Apple's censorship in six markets, mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the U.S., Japan, and Canada. It should not be a surprise that Mainland China has the largest number of banned keywords and numbers while the United States had the least. What is a surprise is that Apple oversteps its legal obligations in Hong Kong, and according to Citizen Lab, "we are aware of no legal justification for the political censorship of content in Taiwan."

Apple's actions in Hong Kong and Taiwan should come as no surprise either. Apple has shown a willingness to bend over backward to keep its status in China intact. The country is responsible for 20% of the company's total revenues.

In the past, Apple has been accused of being sexist when it comes to its censorship. In 2014, it was pointed out that Apple allowed the word "penis" to be engraved on its products but banned the word "vagina." In mainland China, certain number combinations are also banned by Apple. For example, you cannot engrave the number 8964 on any Apple product in the country because it is a reference to the Tiananmen Square protests of June 4, 1989.

In a letter to The Verge, Apple’s chief privacy officer Jane Horvath said, "We handle engraving requests regionally. There is no single global list that contains one set of words or phrases. Instead, these decisions are made through a review process where our teams assess local laws as well as their assessment of cultural sensitivities."