8. Apple Removes Games Featuring The Confederate Flag
The Confederate flag is a symbol of a dark time in U.S. history, and following the events of the horrible shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, a social movement began a call to remove the Confederate flag from governmental displays and retail sales. While this movement had its heart in the right place, it did lead to some unintended instances of censorship. Apple, in an effort to join its voice to the movement, decided to remove any apps displaying the Confederate flag in any offensive or mean-spirited ways from the Apple store. Unsurprisingly, this blanket policy also lead to the unfair removal of historical games based on the Civil War such as Ultimate General: Gettysburg, Civil War: 1862, Civil War: 1864 and Civil War: Gettysburg. Thankfully, Ultimate General: Gettysburg was reinstated shortly after, while HexWar Games, the developers behind the Civil War series, had to make some adjustments in the way they displayed the flag in order to comply with Apples's guidelines, even though they were never displayed in offensive ways. At the very least the incident was relatively contained, and Apple did respond fairly quickly. However, many people felt that Apple overreacted, citing the unintended take down of these games as evidence of what happens when a reaction to a tragedy is taken to the extreme. More importantly, it shows the dangers zero tolerance policies can have on the creation and distribution of art when left unchecked.