San Francisco:
Apple on Thursday pledged to block recommendations for a Palestinian flag emoji to some iPhone users when they type “Jerusalem” in messages.
The Silicon Valley tech giant blamed the prompt on a software error, prompting accusations that Apple showed an anti-Israel bias amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Apple told AFP that predictive emoji suggestions in the iPhone keyboard are not intentional and will be fixed in the next update of its mobile operating system.
British TV presenter Rachel Riley pointed out the quirk on social media, reigniting the debate over whether Israel or the Palestinians have the right to have Jerusalem as their capital.
“When I type in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, I see the Palestinian flag emoji,” Riley wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, calling on Apple to explain.
She pointed out that when typing a range of other capital cities into iPhone messages, there was no suggestion of a flag emoji.
“Showing a double standard toward Israel is a form of anti-Semitism, which is itself a form of racism against Jews,” Riley argued in the post.
She said that after a recent update to the iPhone operating system, a Palestinian flag emoji related to Jerusalem began appearing.
Riley signed her post as “a Jewish woman concerned about the rise of anti-Semitism around the world.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
