Apple Censoring 'Jailbreak' in U.S. iTunes Store Listings [Update: Fixed]

Exploring an observation initially made by iOS hacker @planetbeing, Shoutpedia notes that Apple has mysteriously begun censoring the word "jailbreak" in the U.S. iTunes Store. While not all mentions of the word are affected, the vast majority of them across all content types are currently being censored to "j*******k".

thin lizzy jailbreak censor
Apple has long objected to the jailbreaking process, which opens up iOS devices for installation of apps from non-Apple approved sources and other system tweaks. But it is unclear what the company is trying to achieve with its iTunes Store censoring, which affects such content as Thin Lizzy's song and album of that name and an episode of the The Roy Rogers Show from the early 1950s.

roy rogers real world jailbreak censored
The censoring appears to only affect the U.S. iTunes Store at the present time, but it has been in effect for over eight hours now.

Update: The censoring appears to be inadvertent. Searches for 'jailbreak' on the Apple Store now return results without any asterisks.

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Top Rated Comments

Sky Blue Avatar
169 months ago
Wow. That's pretty ridiculous. Will they censor the word android next?
Score: 71 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AustinIllini Avatar
169 months ago


"Jailbreak doesn't even belong!"
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
buddda Avatar
169 months ago
This is going to garner some sweet free publicity for Thin Lizzy!
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Tones2 Avatar
169 months ago
My guess is that they probably meant to limit this is APPS but inadvertently applied the censor to music as well. Now I'm wondering about movies and TV.

Tony
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HarryKeogh Avatar
169 months ago
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that executives at Apple did not sit around a table and say "let's remove every instance of the word "jailbreak" from the Apple store including classic songs because that makes perfect sense to do" but instead they didn't want it to appear in any instance like a tutorial podcast or app that might show someone how to jailbreak and it censored more than what was intended.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Amazing Iceman Avatar
169 months ago
Here we go, a little Apple non-sense, and just before brunch...

So, is it now 'J*******k You!' going to replace :'[F word] You!' ?
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)