Latest Victim is U.S. Military Drone Hits Mapping App
The Metadata+ app, a complement to the journalistic commentary board ‘Dronestream’, is among the latest ban by Apple. Its developer, Josh Begley, remarked on the rejection and the pain he endured trying to get the application approved. He’s reported to Mic in an interview that it’s been rejected three times, before Apple finally approved it.
Apple bans Dronestream
The app supports ‘Dronestream,’ a Twitter page dedicated to sharing up-to-the-minute commentary, highlighting the latest U.S. military drone hits. It also shares death toll statistics and site location. Interestingly, Metadata+ supposedly provided mapping information. Unfortunately, Apple ruled that it wasn’t an appropriate project. In fact, they had objections about content and Google mapping privileges, as Begley learned after its first rejection. He took to Mashable explaining these concerns, but he remained optimistic about getting it approved. According to Mic reports, ‘Metadata+’ delivered up-to-the-minute alerts of drone hits around the world.
Initially, Begley named the app ‘Drones,’ but unfortunately, it didn’t make it to the Apple store. After a third failed submission, he renamed it ‘Dronestream,’ then its latest- ‘Metadata+.’ With this last submission, Begley was taciturn, sharing nothing about functionality or content. He proceeded to uphold drone feeds after Apple approved it. The Mashable commentary also shared that Begley said an employee of Apple reached out to him after numerous failed submissions. The employee advised him to broaden his topic, so as improve his chances. Despite previous objections, everything seemed absolutely fine, until Apple issued a ban.
Mic further remarked on Apple’s acceptance of mature content such as, Empires and Allies by Zynga, and Hitman: Sniper, that display rich content of violence. By comparison, Begley’s sophisticated ‘Metadata+’ isn’t as violent or intrusive. It merely collects published news coverage and shares the information with its audience. In fact, it has rejected similar projects before such as Dan Archer’s virtual reality number, which recreated a simulation of the viral Ferguson shooting of Michael Brown.
Its creator told Ars Technica that it didn’t include any form of violent or graphic imagery. It seems as if Apple’s protest is against certain journalistic projects. According to Archer, his project focused on 3D modeling. It included a mapping of the locations of Darren Wilson and Michael Brown from the eyewitnesses’ perspective. It had supported audio of police radio recordings and forensic photo evidence too. Apple directed Archer to their guidelines, as per the Apple Store.
