Apple maintains a secret, multilingual list of tens of thousands of words and phrases that its iOS keyboards will not autocomplete or swipe-type, according to a researcher.
While users can still manually type these words and phrases, they will not be suggested via predictive text features in most cases. Researcher Derik Kauffman, who published his findings on a website detailing the list, described it as a "light-touch form of censorship."
"But at the scale that Apple is operating, it only takes a light touch to have a big impact," Kauffman stated.
Most entries on the list are reportedly vulgar, offensive, or related to drugs, sex, or violence. However, the list also includes politically charged terms such as "dictator Trump" and "Sleepy Joe." In Hindi, phrases like "Modi braggart" and "Rahul is Pappu" are reportedly excluded.
Other political or sensitive phrases identified include "right wing conspiracy," "Tibetan independence," and "United Ireland." For French speakers, "immigration too high" is suppressed, and for Hebrew speakers, "occupied territories." Kauffman noted inconsistencies, citing "read smut" as swipe-typable while "read gay smut" is not.
Apple, in a statement, did not directly address the specifics of Kauffman's findings but said its keyboard is designed to avoid inappropriate or offensive suggestions. The company reiterated that users can always override predictive text.
Kauffman discovered the list by noticing inconsistencies in his swipe-typing. He used AI tools to delve into Apple's operating system and found the compendium, estimating it contains around 100,000 entries across various languages.
Reuters tested a subset of these phrases and found that swipe-typing "United Ireland" often resulted in "United Iceland," and "Sleepy Joe" suggested "Sleepy hope." Attempts to type "dictator Trump" would not offer the phrase directly in autocomplete, instead suggesting "dictator trumps."
Another engineer, Matt Suiche of Tolmo, independently verified the list, reporting a near-perfect match with Apple's internal data. He suggested the list has been present for years, potentially influencing communication.
This issue echoes past controversies with predictive text technology. In one instance last year, users reported that dictating the word "racist" on an iPhone would briefly cause "Trump" to flash on the screen, an issue Apple attributed to an error.
David Greene, senior counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, commented that while the list's existence might be "creepy," he could see a rationale for curbing unwanted suggestions. However, he stressed the importance of transparency and user customization for such features, stating, "This is something that should not be secret."