Apple is now being criticised and even boycotted after the Palestinian flag emoji was automatically suggested to iPhone users who type “Jerusalem”- a big issue apparentley.
Both Israel and the Palestinians hold competing claims to the ancient city and this pop-up showing is a clear admission of where Apple Inc. stands in this heated war.
TV presenter Rachel Riley, who is Jewish, noted on social media that national flags were not suggested for other capitals, but the palestinian flag was suggested for Jerusalem only.
Apple has publicly annouced in a press statement via the BBC that the changeis what was followed a recent software update and that it was not intentional.
The issue will be remedied in a future software update, Apple says, but it is not known how rapidly this will happen.
Writing on X (formerly Twitter), Ms Riley, the aforementioned jewish reoprter had demanded that Apple explain what had happened.
“Showing double standards with respect to Israel is a form of antisemitism”, she argued.
The notes accompanying the latest iOS update say that it includes “new emojis.” aswell.
Any company other than apple to deal with this “mishap”?
The status of Jerusalem is one of the hottest disputes in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians as this is the most holy site in Christianity and Jewish Religions and it is the 3rd most hold place im Islam as it has the Masjid Al Aqsa .
This is not the first time a big tech company has found itself embroiled in the rising dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.
Last year, tech giant Meta or formerly known as Facebook had to apologise after a bug resulted in it adding “terrorist” to the biographies of some Instagram users describing themselves as Palestinian a grave mistake showing how AI can also show a bias when it comes to heavily argued and debatable topics.
Meta said it fixed a problem “that briefly caused inappropriate Arabic translations” in some of its products a current update is needed.
