Apple App Store Rejects Grad Student’s App That Alerts of Deadly U.S. Drone Strikes

Philip Caufield | New York Daily News

A crafty NYU grad student created a killer iPhone app that sends an alert  every time a U.S. drone strike kills a terrorist – but Apple nuked it.

Josh Begley’s Drone+ app used media reports to track drone casualties and  even featured a handy Google map pinpointing the sites where American Hellfire  missiles found their targets.

Apple rejected the app on Monday – for the third time this summer – saying  it contained “objectionable” content, Wired reported.

“We found that your app contains content that many audiences would find  objectionable, which is not in compliance with the App Store guidelines,” the  company said in an email to Begley.

In an earlier letter, Apple said the drone-tracking app was rejected because  it was too boring.

Begley said he was a little miffed at the decision, since the app doesn’t  publish pictures of the strikes’ fiery aftermaths.

“I can’t say I was surprised. But I do think it’s notable that an app which  simply republishes news can somehow have ‘excessively objectionable or crude  content,’” Begley, 27, told the Daily News.

Begley, a students in NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, said he  hoped the drone-tracking app would rattle users into “drone-consciousness.”

“I didn’t actually expect anyone to download the app. People don’t want to  hear about drone strikes But that’s kind of the point,” he said.

“Even if we have access to the data, do we really care to be interrupted by  it?”

Drone+ joined scores of other apps that Apple has snubbed since it opened  the App Store in 2008.

Last spring, the company came under fire from gay rights groups for okaying  an app that sought to help gay people become straight.

The tech giant later pulled the so-called “gay cure” app, saying it was  offensive to large groups of people.

Begley told the Los Angeles Times he’d consider building Drone+ for Android,  Google’s rival to the iPhone.