'Commie' and 'Democratization' Blocked... The Truth About Apple's Suspicious Hidden List

Independent researcher analyzes word list inside iOS
“Dictator Trump,” “Tibetan independence”... Korean words also included
“Restrictions on political expressions raise questions about consistency of criteria”

Apple has reportedly excluded not only profanity and sexual terms but also politically sensitive words and phrases from suggestions in the iPhone keyboard’s autocorrect and swipe-typing features. The restricted list included political expressions such as “Dictator Trump” and “Tibetan independence,” as well as Korean words.

Yonhap News Agency reported on November 7, citing findings published on his personal website by independent security researcher Derek Kaufman, that Apple maintains a multilingual list of restricted words in the iPhone operating system, iOS.

Kaufman analyzed a word list stored within iOS after discovering in September last year that certain words were not being recognized properly during swipe typing. Another security expert independently recovered a similar list and confirmed the findings.

Apple's first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo. Yonhap News Agency.

The list does not block users from entering specific words. Users can type them manually, but the keyboard is designed not to suggest the expressions through autocorrect or its swipe-typing feature, which lets users enter words by moving a finger across the keyboard. Kaufman called such a list a “graylist.”

The restricted terms included “Dictator Trump,” a criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump, and “Sleepy Joe,” a mocking reference to former President Joe Biden. Other entries related to international politics included “Tibetan independence” and “United Ireland.” Tests also found that “Sleepy Joe” was changed to “Sleepy hope” and “United Ireland” was recognized as “United Iceland.”

The Korean-language list reportedly included “far right,” “commie,” “democratization,” “Gaka,” and “Hiroppong” (methamphetamine). The Chinese-language list included “Liu Si,” referring to the Tiananmen democracy protests, and “Taidu,” meaning Taiwanese independence. The French and Hebrew lists also contained expressions related to immigration and territorial disputes.

Kaufman said, “The purpose may be to prevent inappropriate expressions from being sent accidentally, but restricting political expressions as well raises questions about the consistency of the criteria.”

In a statement to foreign media, Apple said users can type any word or phrase they want and can ignore autocorrect suggestions. It also said the iPhone keyboard is designed to avoid suggesting words that may be inappropriate or offensive. However, the company did not disclose the exact size of the restricted list or the specific criteria used to select entries.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.